


Anomalous Results

by CrescentMoogle



Category: Alternate Universes - Fandom, Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: 1920s, Dadster is not Badster, Fluff and Science, Found Family, Gaster rambles about things that nobody understands. A lot., Gen, Growing Up, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Inconsequential Character Death (?), M/M, Main Character Is Human, Memory Loss, Mild Trauma, Mt. Ebott is in Scotland, Multiverse Theory, No Smut, Non-Canonical Character Death, Other, POV Third Person, Science! Science for Everyone!, Scientific Nonsense, Slow Build, Soul Disorders, Soul Theories, Takes place 100 years before the events of Undertale, The AUs will arrive... just maybe later..., Time Shenanigans, Time Travel, main character is not frisk, mild violence, monsters weren't sealed Underground, multiple AUs, my own take on the multiple-AU idea, sibling relationships, takes place over a period of 20 years
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-06
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2020-04-11 20:17:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 22,687
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19116952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrescentMoogle/pseuds/CrescentMoogle
Summary: A young soul travels North, seeking the aid of a much older, much wiser one. Events converge upon a single universe, and the scientist works on, blind to his own self-inflicted fate.Beyond, in the Void, two spectators seek to weave the path of the future unfolding before them.---This is my own adaptation of the multiple-AUs idea, taken from a scientific perspective. It will centre around Doctor Gaster, his sons, and a family of humans caught up in the events. Error and Ink will do their best to interfere, with mixed results.Be prepared for plenty of theorising and scientific nonsense, and be prepared for Error to ruin things for everyone else involved!Please note that none of the named AUs tagged in this fic are mine - all credit goes to the wonderful artists and writers who originally created them, and you should definitely go and check those out.





	1. The Soul Scientist

A young soul travelled North, seeking the aid of a much older, much wiser one. Salt spray stung at the child's reddened cheeks and her mother’s grip clung too tightly to her shoulder as she braced herself against the railing of the small boat.

The girl’s name was Serenity Strand, but only her professors called her that. She much preferred just ‘Seri’. Her mother, Catherine, had brought her far away from her home in London, to an island in the Atlantic that she couldn’t remember the name of. Her pale eyes squinted against the elements as she peered for the island, hidden amidst sea mists.

The waves reached high over the bow rails of the boat, rolling the rope-tails around on the deck and soaking through Seri’s stockings, into her shoes. The wind tore through the little on-deck shelter, gleefully attempting to steal off with her mother’s hat.

No matter how the sodden planks creaked and tilted, the small helmsperson kept a sure course, sturdy on their feet despite not being much over four feet tall. Their deep-hooded robe had gone waterlogged black, but sometimes over the turmoil, Seri could hear them singing a lighthearted tune, as if they were serenading the storm itself.

The cold water and wind had done a good job of masking the uncomfortable thrum in Seri’s chest, at least. She absently rubbed at her sternum where her heart fluttered unevenly. It’s ‘arrhythmia’, the doctor back in London had said; her heart was weak and didn’t beat the way it should. Nothing they could do. But Catherine had argued. She had assured Seri that her heart was perfectly fine, that ‘the monsters will know what to do’.

 

When finally they reached the shore, a red wooden carriage was waiting near the dock, with a large dark horse patiently resting beneath the curtains of rain. Seri’s legs still swayed as she shrugged off a shiver. She wouldn’t complain about her wet stockings, even if the salt-burn was painful. She couldn’t have her mother worrying any more. It wasn’t so cold.

The carriage had no driver, but the cart horse began a steady pace upon the cliffside track without a command, as soon as the girl and her mother had loaded themselves and their minimal luggage safely inside. Clearly, the loyal shire knew his way home.

The carriage interior had plump seat cushions that matched the crimson exterior, and a large lantern hanging from the ceiling, burning a gentle flame. Being out of the rain was heavenly, and Seri took off her shoes so that she could curl up and warm her feet, while she drew back the lace blinds and peered through the window.

The hills outside were barren, worn down to sparse gorse bushes and hardy grass by the late autumnal weather. As far as could be seen through the storm, the terrain was similar for a long way. Beyond the cliffs, the sea looked rougher now, and she hoped that the helmsperson would be alright on their journey home.

Seri didn’t think that anyone would live here out of choice, but maybe it suited monsters better? The repetitive terrain became dull to watch after a while, so she curled back into the seat beside her mother, who glanced at her with a smile that poorly masked her concern. It wasn’t long before Seri found her eyes drifting closed.

 

↭↭↭

 

When she awoke, disorientated, the world outside was utterly different. Tall dark trees overshadowed the track, and when she peered through the misted window she could see pine needles kicking up beneath the sturdy hooves of the horse. Lanterns like the one inside the carriage hung on lamp posts that intermittently lit the cobbled road, and the flanks of the horse steamed now that the rain had stopped.

Ahead, Seri could sometimes make out other lights through the trees - looking closer, she could pick out beautifully kept cottages with lights around their porches and smoking chimneys, nestled discreetly in glades dotted with flowers, stubbornly blooming despite the time of year. Through the windows of some of the nearer buildings, glimpses could be caught of the strange beings inside, reading or cooking or conversing - monsters!

Her expression broke into a smile, and she couldn’t help but bounce in her seat with excitement. She had never met a monster before; at least, not that she could remember.

 

Her mother had told her they had been here years ago, when Seri was too young to remember it. Her father was enlisted as a sailor for the British Royal Navy, and he had been gravely wounded in the Great War when Seri was only three years old. The monsters here had helped him recover.

After the war ended, monsters were officially written into the peace treaties being signed across the world. Their once-secret enclaves were opened up to those in need of magical aid. Monsters were renowned for being able to heal injuries that a human surgeon wouldn’t have a chance of fixing.

When Seri’s father had come home from service, his legs and spine had been injured so badly that the human doctors hadn’t known what to do, but five years later, her father was a reliable shipwright in London, with two working legs and a strong back, all thanks to magical healing. When Seri’s own condition had become more acute and had proven a mystery beyond the human doctors’ ability, Catherine had hastily tracked down the same monster doctor who had helped her husband, a last-resort attempt to help her daughter.

 

Seri looked up to her mother, studying her hazel eyes as they flickered over the scenery out of her window, the lines of her mouth pursed in thought. Catherine caught her looking, and at the anticipation on her daughter’s face she couldn’t help but return an honest smile.

“I think the doctor’s house is only a little further, if I remember right.” She said, voice always melodic and patient. Though she had intended to calm her child, her words had the opposite effect. Seri’s grin only widened.

“What is the doctor’s name, mama?” She shuffled her feet to locate her shoes, wide eyes still trained on Catherine.

“His name is Doctor Gaster, and he is a particular and eminent man. It is very important that when we meet him, you absolutely mustn’t stare.”

 

↭↭↭

 

The house of the doctor was grander than some of the others they had passed. It had an archway over the gate draped with purple climbing flowers, and a silver door-knocker in the shape of an animal skull set into the dark oak door. A string of tiny electrical lights hung about the doorway and around the porch lamp.

The grown-up somehow managed to appear more nervous than the child as the pair prepared themselves before the door. Seri watched her mother set her bags neatly by her side, brush imaginary creases from her skirt, and straighten her shoulders, hands clasped neatly in front of her. Seri copied the actions.

Before her mother could finish steeling herself, Seri had reached up to loop her fingers into the jaw of the knocker, and gave it two precise raps. Barely a beat of Seri’s heart went by, and no movement was heard from inside before a stern voice replied from within:

“Who’s there?”

“It’s Miss Strand, sir.” Seri answered before her mother could speak up. She shrugged at her mother’s alarmed expression. It was her appointment to meet with the doctor after all; not her mother’s.

The door opened ominously inwards, and the porch lights flooded in to highlight every feature of the person standing in the doorway so ethereally that Seri really did find it very difficult not to stare, despite her mother’s warning.

 

The light shone down over the crown of his skull, and where his sharp cheekbones protruded, the shadows accentuated each curve and point, and left in deeper darkness his ovular eye sockets, where two points of purple-white glimmered like captured stardust. His mouth was drawn into a firm line, partially hiding his neat teeth behind a lip of bone. In one hand he grasped a thin walking cane, while the other arm was held in parade rest.

A skeleton! But not anything like the kind of skeleton you might find in a biology class. The lights suspended in his sockets glinted as they focussed on Seri, and then she was sure she had stared too long. Her mother’s eyes were averted politely downwards.

“Well?” Rumbled the skeleton. He elongated the word, and in one syllable he held more poise than most businessmen in the big city. His enunciation was clipped, and Seri was sure that the finality of his tone would have been enough to break the will of an army general. Seri refused to buckle, however. She maintained her gaze, held in place only by sheer willpower. Her knees did not shake, and her smile did not falter. Of course a skeleton would be scary, she told herself.

One more beat and his glare flickered into something akin to amusement. His teeth parted into a lopsided smirk.

“Whatever are you **Strand-** ing around outside for?” He asked. His voice maintained the same tact, but wavered with humour as he broke into a true smile, free from malice. His posture relaxed from where he had pulled himself up to his full - and considerable - height, and his spare arm relaxed behind his back.

Seri wasn’t sure if it was right to laugh - the joke had been rather clever. Her mother was no indication; she appeared to be frozen in place. So, Seri settled for a polite giggle, hidden behind her gloved hand. She reached out her other hand to offer it in greeting.

He swapped his cane onto his left side, and took her outstretched hand gently in fingers like ivory spiders’ legs, slim and pointed. The fingers in proportion to his palm were much longer than a human’s, and she felt the visible joints pull at the satin of her glove. He leaned to simulate the motion of placing a kiss on the back of her hand, maintaining a polite distance between them.

Once he let go, he turned to her mother to do the same, every movement as neat and sharp as his long charcoal-grey overcoat and well-shined shoes.

“Mrs Strand, it’s lovely to see you again,” he nodded to her mother, “and Serenity too, though I’m sure you don’t remember me?”

“No sir,” Seri replied, now finding her manners and bowing her head, “I’m afraid not.”

“Not to worry, not to worry.” He waved her humility away and turned to usher them both through the door. “Come inside, please.”

Her mother took up her luggage and stepped inside first, Seri in tow. The doctor lead them into a lobby with wood-panelled walls and a smart grey rug running its length.

“It’s good to see you, doctor. Are you well?” Catherine asked.

“That I am, as always. And how have you and Leonard been?”

"Oh, well..."

The adults’ conversation bored Seri, and faded into the background of her concentration as she took in her surroundings. Ornamental lamps were fastened at intervals throughout the hall, lit with electric bulbs rather than gas lights. At the far end of the room, a feature wall held an impressive painting of the same kind of animal skull that the door-knocker was fashioned into. Energetic jazz was playing from an ajar doorway to the left, throwing off an atmosphere that might otherwise have been intimidating.

She resisted the urge to be nosy for now, and resigned herself to taking off her shoes and placing them neatly on the rack by the door, before following her mother and the doctor, who had continued their conversation into the next room.

 

↭↭↭

 

Shortly, Seri was perched on the doctor’s examination table where her mother had lifted her before she left to wait in one of the other rooms. She sat as well-behaved as she could be, waiting for the doctor to begin his work. The heels of her shoes knocked against the side of the counter; _one-two, one-two, one-two_ , matching her heartbeat. The table was cold where it hit the back of her legs.

The room was not like any other examination rooms that Seri had been in. It was more like an office than a laboratory, with a potted plant in one corner, and a large oak desk against one wall, overflowing with notes and folders. The papers invaded the space around the desk too, the whole wood-panelled wall behind it being used as a pinboard for scrawled diagrams and scientific ramblings, drawn in a hand that Seri couldn’t read.

 

Doctor Gaster entered the room, his expression focused but not on her; he appeared deep in thought, eyeing a document in his free hand, and didn’t acknowledge her presence as he crossed to his desk. This gave her a moment to study him while his back was turned. His footsteps were completely silent, and while he held very good posture, he walked with a slight limp - the reason for the cane, Seri supposed. The object in question was now propped at his desk, and she could see that it had an unusual silver topper comprised of interlocking spiral shapes.

“Now, Serenity.” The doctor spoke up, making her jump. She had thought he hadn’t noticed her. “We shall have to start from the beginning. I’m sure you have already answered many doctors’ questions, but these medical notes are no good to me,” He emphasised the point by tossing the notes onto his desk amongst all the others. “I need to hear it from you directly.”

He took a clipboard from a drawer and a fountain pen from his pocket, and pulled up his chair to sit before her at the examination table, with one leg crossed over the other. Even sitting down, he was still almost as tall as Seri, despite her being perched on the table.

“So, let’s begin with the symptoms.” He studied her face intently. “You say your heartbeat is uneven?”

Seri nodded, “Yes, sir. It flutters awfully, and sometimes it gets so loud in my ears that I can hardly hear anything else.”

He hummed in acknowledgement as he wrote something down without looking at the paper. “Does the fluttering happen all the time?”

“Not all the time, no. It goes away completely sometimes, but usually only after…”

He waited a moment, but when she didn't continue, he frowned and tilted his head to catch her attention. “After what?” He asked sternly.

She absently pressed a closed fist to her chest. “Sometimes, it gets a lot worse. My heartbeat gets louder and faster, and after that it starts hurting.”

“Your heart hurts?”

She nodded again, “It feels like...” she thought for a moment, trying to recall the sensation when it was at its worst. “It’s as though there’s a little bird trying to get out from inside my chest. Eventually I stop being able to hear anything else, and my vision goes white, and it becomes worse and worse until I faint. After that, the fluttering fades completely for a while.”

The doctor’s eye sockets had somehow widened, the sparks in the centre brighter and more intense. "It sounds like a seizure.” He said quietly, almost to himself. “How often does this occur?"

"It has only happened maybe twice, that I remember."

"Do you remember what you were doing the first time it happened?"

She closed her eyes, took a breath. Yes, she remembered the first time. Sometimes she would have nightmares about that time and she'd wake up with her pulse rising in her ears again, and have to fight to get it back under control.

 

The first time, she was five years old. There was enough warning when the enemy's zeppelins arrived to make it to shelter in the nearest subway station, but Seri had panicked, caught up in the flood of people rushing to safety, too young to keep up and too small to understand, or to see where she was going amidst the crowd. By the time her parents noticed that she was missing, she had curled up in the street, unable to hear the footfalls of the frightened people around her, her ears filling up with the beating of her heart. She couldn’t sense anything else as a stranger hoisted her to safety.

 

Seri exhaled steadily, having relayed her tale to the doctor. He was now staring straight through her, in his own world as his hand continued to scrawl notes, seemingly with a mind of its own. She took the time while he was deep in thought to calm herself from the memory.

“Aha!” Gaster exclaimed abruptly, making Seri look up. He stood and stepped in one stride to place his clipboard neatly on the desk. “I believe I have a theory.” He addressed the wall of pinned notes before him.

“You do?” There was a smile in Seri’s voice at his sudden burst of energy.

“Indeed.” He returned to pace about in front of her as he thought aloud. “From the notes of the other professionals you have consulted, I conclude that the issue is not biological; although your heart rate is elevated, it is not the cause of your condition - it is merely a consequence.” He came to a stop and turned on his heel to face her, radiating an incredible intensity.

“The problem is not a physical one, and is clearly not psychological either - you are sound of mind, not at all nervous despite your predicament - therefore… It must be an essential ailment.” He punctuated the conclusion by clapping his hands together.

Seri tilted her head. “Essential?”

“Yes! Relating to the essence of your being: your soul!” He was being far too nonsensical and dramatic, Seri thought, but she was pleased all the same that the previously-stern monster was now so enthused.

“Would you mind if I looked at it?” He asked.

She stared at him, forgetting again to be polite in the wake of his monologue. “Looked at it? At my soul you mean, uh,” she shifted forward in her perch on the table, “you can do that?”

“But of course I can. It is in fact one of my specialities.” He finally remembered to take a breath, and glanced over her expression. “You are confused.”

Seri nodded sheepishly. She knew of the concept of a soul, but the idea that it could be the reason for her illness was a little much. The doctor placed a hand over his chest.

“Every living being - human, monster, animal, even some plant-life - has a soul. It is the culmination of our non-physical identity, an anchor for our personalities and emotions. For most, the soul can be found in the centre of the being,” he pointed with one spindly finger to his chest, where his heart would be if he were human, “…right here.”

Seri mirrored the action, bringing her own hand over her heart. The doctor continued.

“Monsters are unusual, in that our bodies are more a projection of essential energy than physical matter - our souls influence our outward appearance. As such, we are much more connected to our souls. Where human medicine is grounded in the physical - blood and muscle and such - monster medical practices require the study of the soul itself.” He checked she was listening, and she indeed was, paying as much attention as she could even if the lecture was far beyond her ability to understand.

“My field of study focuses on soul identity. This can include everything from our personalities, to our dreams, to our capacity for magic.” He paused again, seemingly for effect. Seri shifted distractedly. She was doing her best, but she was confused and so far the monster had not performed anything that she would consider ‘magic'.

“Now. All monsters know how to see and draw forth the souls of others, but my abilities specifically lean towards understanding the information that a soul can provide. May I?” He indicated towards where her hand was still pressed to her chest.

Seri found that she was both uncertain and excited. “Yes! You may.”

He nodded. “I will need you to relax and place your hands down by your sides, so that they are out of my way. Don't worry, this will not be painful.”

She did as he requested, trying to stay still and trust what he said. Doctor Gaster moved in close and hovered a spidery hand above her sternum, fingers splayed wide and an expression of concentration on his ivory face. Seri felt a slight twinge, as though the skeleton’s fingertips were glancing over her insides. It didn't hurt at all; if she hadn’t been paying attention, she wouldn't have noticed the feeling.

 

The doctor’s expression remained one of wide-eyed fixation for several minutes, his eyes going an intense purple hue as he did so. Soon though, he released her from whatever he had done. No bright lights, no strange hum in the air or magic words uttered. She tried not to show her disappointment.

“Very unusual,” he muttered to himself, “monster souls are not prone to sickness… I suppose conditions such as yours are likely to go unnoticed entirely in a community unable to recognise essential energy…”

He returned to his desk without any more explanations, pinning a new piece of paper to the pockmarked wall and beginning to draw something on it. The sound of the pencil and Seri’s breathing were all that filled the room, and after a moment she recognised that she could no longer hear her pulse.

“Doctor Gaster, you were right!” She gasped. “The noise has gone!”

The doctor hummed sceptically. “Hmm. Do not be too ready to thank me. I have not cured you, merely stemmed the problem for a while. It will return, but I now have some concepts for your treatment. I need to write everything down. If you wouldn’t mind, would you go to your mother in the lounge? I will be with you shortly.”

 

↭↭↭

The doctor and her mother talked for a long time after that, and agreed upon a treatment plan for Seri, though Doctor Gaster said that for now, at least, they would have to remain close by. He seemed concerned about the ‘seizures’ that Serenity had suffered from in the past, and though it took some convincing, he assured Catherine that it would be unsafe for her to leave now, and that there was nobody else who would be able to perform the treatment she needed.

Shortly afterwards, Gaster made a phonecall and a brown bear monster arrived. The doctor explained the situation, and the cheerful bear lumbered back towards the town to find a place for the pair to stay. Catherine borrowed some writing equipment from the doctor, and while Seri sat by the fire, Catherine wrote a long letter to her husband back in London with an inventory of items to be brought to them, which she said might take a few days to arrive.

 

Serenity didn’t mind. She was going to get to stay with the monsters.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to the universe, friends! It’s good to have you along, and I hope you enjoy.
> 
> I apologise for the dear doctor’s ramblings, I really can’t stop him once he gets going - believe me, I’ve tried.
> 
> If you were wondering, this fic starts in 1921, a few years after the First World War. For the purposes of this story, Mt. Ebott and the monster enclave are situated in Scotland, on the Isle of Lewis. Since many of the monsters in Undertale are based on those from Scottish folklore, it would make sense that they came from there originally.
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> _Scientific nonsense: Gaster’s walking cane is topped with a Mobius, which is a mathematical symbol that I feel Dr. G might appreciate. Some mathematicians theorise that the universe is shaped like a Mobius; a single strip of matter that technically only has one continuous surface. It's pretty neat! ___


	2. Point Of View

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The doctor reveals that he has been keeping secrets from his patient.

_See, from above, a sizeable loch, its crystal-blue waters agitated by the cruel winds that continuously buffet this isle. In the far distance beyond, two peaks reach to frame the cold autumn sun at the southern coast of the island. At the loch’s shore, a stream sneaks into a forest of looming pine trees nestled in a deep valley, sheltered from the gale. Impenetrable mists hang gossamer-like between the trees, supplying a natural veil to the forest and withholding all its secrets from the outside world._

_Beyond the banks of clinging mist, and into the forest interior, begin to pick out flashes of colour between the dark trees. Here, a lamp-post, lit with everlasting orange flames that do not burn. There, a cottage modestly built by hand and by magic - the surrounding flowerbeds brighter than any that this climate could ever nurture. Outside, a deer stands on hind legs to prune the drifts of a beautiful climbing rose, humming softly to the blooms as they work. Amongst the trees, other buildings can be seen sheltered beneath the great pine boughs. The enigmatic residents of this hamlet have called the place ‘Refuge’, for that is what it is._

_On the steep hillside of the valley, a little removed from the rest of the dwellings, a tall, narrow house perches, built from the pine trees that once grew where it now stands. Peering inwards again, past the dark front door complete with a skull, and through the tastefully eerie interior, to view the study in the back room._

_A lone electric lamp - powered by a machine of the scientist’s own design - lights his desk while he works into the late afternoon, pouring over theories and diagrams on many simultaneous projects. One, to supply electrical energy to all of his neighbours. Another, to help him defend his work from intruders, and yet another to bring a weakened human soul back from the brink of collapse._

_One of his projects, however, requires a room all to itself; further in, through the locked door disguised amongst the wall panels, and into a space lit by strange violet light that emanates from nowhere and everywhere. The centrepiece; a seven-foot high creation of glass and metal, with open panels displaying advanced circuit-boards and wires reaching to other devices around the room. Its viewing panel scrolls quietly through baffling data readings. To most people on the date of its creation, this device would be beyond understanding, and would be considered a form of magic all on its own, yet here it sleeps, waiting for its master to activate it again and send ripples out into the unknown._

_Then, draw further in through the reticule of the Machine, and further, until ‘in’ becomes ‘out’, and the view resolves on the space between this world and the next. The pale Void, a place without matter, without life, without linear time, without light or darkness to give it form. A figure drifts here, and though they should not be, they stubbornly remain here alone, giving form to the Void and watching closely the work of the scientist whose ignorant actions will, and already have, decided the fate of many more universes than just his own._

 

The figure sighed deeply, leaning forward in his sketched approximation of a chair, with one hand supporting his skull, elbow on knee while he spectated dejectedly on the workings of the scientist in the problematic universe.

“I don’t know what I can do.” He mumbled to the Void in general. His voice sank into the fog of blank non-existence, and as usual, it did not answer. Nor did any of the other universes that he spectated on bring him any solutions to his problems. He scribbled into existence a copy of the notes written by the scientist on his own universe, which he had pompously labelled ‘Alpha’. The lone figure scanned them with mismatched pupils, and left a note to himself at the bottom.

Then, he drew into the blankness before him a view of the Inversion - the mirror-reflection of his own empty universe. The fathomless dark Void was empty. Not that that should be abnormal, but the lack of its only resident was… troubling. He growled a frustrated sigh and stood quickly, his feet finding purchase on the material of the Void with a muted thud. The various viewscapes faded back to nothingness around him.

He reached out a colourless hand to pull his brush from the emptiness, and painted a swift crimson ellipse with a single flourish that hinted at the practice of his hand. He stepped neatly through, the painted shape fracturing and disintegrating as he did so, and the pale Void was left empty and silent once more.

 

↭↭↭

 

The bear monster, whose name was in fact Orron, had located a place for the Strands to stay - a house that had been split into several tiny dwellings as a makeshift hotel during the war when the influx of wounded soldiers had become too much for the monsters to handle. Catherine told Seri that she remembered the place - that they had stayed here briefly while her father was healing. Seri didn't remember, but the building was lovely all the same.

They were quickly moved in, and Orron offered to help with anything he could while they settled in. He said that there was an extended family of rabbits living in other parts of the house, and that while the family would be happy to help with anything the Strands needed, he reassured them that it really wasn't a problem for him to keep an eye out for them too.

The house would have been a sizeable dwelling if it had been a single home, but as it was, the living spaces were separated into two-room blocks consisting of one bedroom and a modest living area. There were shared-use bathrooms, kitchens, a common room, and a utility room on the ground floor. From what Seri had seen on the way upstairs to the second floor, it was apparent that those communal areas were well lived-in by the rabbit family.

Seri had built herself a nest of blankets and cushions on the sofa in the main room of their ‘apartment’, close enough to the generously-sized fireplace that she could listen to the smoldering embers to lull her to sleep. Catherine had offered for Seri to share the single bedroom with her, but she was happy to have the space to herself.

Seri and Catherine’s belongings weren’t to arrive for a few days yet, so they were to survive on the kindness of the monsters alone, of which there was plenty. Blankets and bed linens were supplied by Orron from his own home, while the extended family of rabbits offered to let the pair share their impressive stock of food from the large cellar below the building, and found warm clothes that might fit Seri and her mother until they could get their own - which was a relief, since the pair didn't own any clothes that were sturdy enough to help against the chill of the island.

It had been explained to them that monsters often worked on a system of shared resources and trade, rather than using currency - the rabbit family didn't mind offering to help the Strands now, as the two would surely repay them later by some other kindness. The enclave was so small that it was unnecessary to have to pay for things within the community, and most people who worked in the town did so without payment; simply to support each other was enough.

 

Between visits to the doctor, Seri explored the village. The excitement of having a skeleton doctor quickly mellowed into a background sense of respect, once it became clear that he either wasn't able or wasn't willing to do anything truly magical. The surrounding forest, however, held plenty of novelties and excitements on every exploration.

Seri had met a small and knowledgeable tortoise, with pouches slung over his shell and an oversized pith helmet on his head. He had explained that in the village there were only a few families of monsters, who had bravely left the capital city to the south about twelve years ago, to find a new place to settle and expand their horizons.

Nowadays, there were a handful of humans living amongst the monster families too - people who had been injured in the war like her father, but who had either been too crippled or too happy here to leave. Those humans had relied on monster hospitality until they had become a part of the community, and had built houses of their own.

 

↭↭↭

 

Today, Seri was exploring the hillside north of the doctor's house, enjoying her freedom while Catherine had gone to the coast to coordinate the arrival of their belongings with Orron and some of the other bear family members. This morning, Seri had told the attentive and round-faced mother of the rabbit family where she was going. Her appointment wasn't until the afternoon, so Catherine had trusted her enough to give her a few hours' free reign.

She scrambled up a bank, following a rough path that ran parallel to a bubbling stream, up the hill towards its source. Her fingers sank into the pine needles as she climbed, her attention focused on keeping her borrowed red woolen jacket clean. She crested the ridge to see a break in the trees, where a beautiful glade of emerald grass and ferns burst forth from the banks of the stream.

Further into the glade and over the stream, Seri could see someone large cutting up logs with an axe. The repetitive sound carried amidst the breeze and birdsong, and as she caught her breath, she relished the clarity of her hearing in the absence of her incessantly thrumming pulse.

The figure stopped their work and raised their head. Seri could make out a long snout and two pointed ears. A dog? The figure caught her scent and turned, waving in one slow motion at her. She took that as an invitation to approach them, and surveyed the stream's edge to pick out the place where it was narrowest. When she reached a small natural ford, she had to jump to make the distance without her oversized boots getting wet, but she managed. As she reached the opposite bank, she snagged a nice round pebble.

As she made her way through the long grasses, rolling the stone in her hand, she realised how bright it was here compared to the main village. The trees were much thinner, allowing the low sunlight to reach down between the treetops in golden shafts. It wasn't too windy, either. She breathed a long sigh of happiness. It might be cold, but this was still the best holiday she had ever had.

 

The woodcutter was revealed to be a wolf, shaggy, with grey-brown fur and an open checkered jacket that barely covered his broad back. Standing on his hind legs, Seri only came up to his grey stomach. He tipped his head and grunted by way of greeting, coal-black eyes inquisitive.

“Hello, mister wolf.” Seri said, a small part of her mind noting the relative threat of the situation. Alone, out of sight, at the boundary of the village, and here she was making acquaintances with an eight-foot wolf monster - whilst wearing a red coat, nonetheless. The wolf only grunted in response, returning to his methodical work.

Seri spied a small, neat pile of cut logs and set herself down there. “My name is Serenity Strand - what’s yours?”

“Wood Wolf.” Answered the canine simply. She supposed that made sense.

“Nice to meet you.” She pondered momentarily to the background noise of the axe hitting the big stump that Wood Wolf was using as a cutting block. An inquisitive thought struck her as she sat there in the sun. She spoke her mind.

“I’m sorry if this might be rude to ask, but aren’t wolves mostly nocturnal?”

The wolf tipped his head again. “Don’t like the dark.”

“Oh. Well, neither do I.”

“...don’t eat meat either, or do much growling.” He continued thoughtfully.

“You’re a vegetarian?” There was surprise in her voice.

“Hm.” He confirmed. Seri smiled kindly at him.

She wasted around an hour or two keeping the wolf company, making conversation for the pair of them and not minding his stilted responses. He didn’t seem bothered by the distraction, laughing gruffly at her antics and even allowing her to help stack the wood onto a flat-bedded sledge ready for transport back into town.

Eventually she had to make her way back down the slope for her appointment, pocketing the round pebble she had found and taking a few pieces of wood for Doctor Gaster, as Wood Wolf requested. She felt like she had made a good friend today, and smiled all the way to Doctor Gaster’s house, waving to an orange-furred rabbit and a small, spiny bird monster playing on the road as she went.

 

↭↭↭

 

The door was answered before she reached it, and the doctor studied her a moment with that unreadable gaze of his.

“You’re late.” He noted as he stepped aside. He didn’t seem particularly annoyed by this.

“I’m sorry Doctor. I brought you some firewood though.” She shuffled inside and motioned her laden arms upwards.

“Ah, well that about makes up for it.” He half-smiled, easily taking the logs from her in his long hands. He turned away towards the lounge, leaving her to take off her shoes and coat. His small smile stayed in place as he took the tiny delivery of firewood to set with the rest stacked either side of the stove. The child was growing on him every day, much like her father had done years ago. The family certainly made it difficult to hold much distrust for humanity, despite his knowledge of how much worse things could have been...

Seri quietly padded over to the doctor's side. The lounge was furnished in reds and deep browns, every wall holding neatly filled bookshelves or oil paintings of a skeletal theme. A gramophone stood in the window, and a coffee table held a bouquet of golden flowers. At the other end of the room which ran the whole breadth of the house, a dining table was set with six chairs around it. Seri wondered whether it was ever used - the doctor seemed a rather lonely person, and she had never seen him eat anything.

Gaster stood from where he had been stacking the new logs, and hissed between his teeth. He squinted at his hand, where a shard of wood had become lodged between the tiny bones in his palm. He wriggled his fingers, but the splinter stayed where it was.

"Oh, bother.”

 

Seri felt fortunate she had been there to help the doctor, since the splinter refused to budge even when the doctor ran his hands under the tap. She eventually was required to push a pair of tweezers between the bones of his palm retrieve it. It was an odd sensation, as if a strong magnetic force kept the the bones where they were meant to be. She glanced up towards Doctor Gaster's face. His jaw was clenched.

"Is it uncomfortable?"

"Not especially, no. Do not worry."

He didn't sound especially pained, so she pushed onward. She kept her hand steady, trying not to touch the bones where possible, and...

"Got it!" She delicately pulled the tweezers back, and the doctor released a breath.

"Thank goodness. What would I have done without you?"

 

Shortly after, she was perched on the doctor’s examination table again, this time with a cushion beneath her. The doctor cleared his throat, which Seri thought was very silly considering he hadn’t a throat to clear.

“I think before we can progress with your treatment, I should explain how it works.” Seri knew she was in for another lecture, one which she couldn’t hope to memorise.

“A soul can be considered a vessel, of sorts. In humans the heart is a suitable comparison, pumping blood around the physical form where the soul channels essential energy.”

He made the shape of a heart with his slender hands, hovering it above his chest. “The souls of non-magical beings such as humans and most animals look like this. These souls act as sponges - they take in and store magical energy in large quantities, but most non-magical beings cannot utilise this energy.”

Gaster now inverted the heart shape. “The souls of magical beings such as monsters look like this. These souls are generators for essential energy, the majority of which is released to disperse into an ambient magical field. Are you following me?”

The question caught Seri a little off-guard. “Um, y-yes sir.” She was only fibbing a little bit.

“Good, now. The cause of your condition is this…” He turned to the pinboard wall to pull down a fresh piece of paper. He draped it over the table beside Seri so that she could see it clearly.

The diagram was of a heart - or as Seri now knew, a soul. It was drawn in great detail with a fine pencil, and scored straight down the middle with a line that widened into an oval at its end. She looked up at the scientist, who had one hand to his bony chin.

“Your soul has a hole in it." He explained. "Do not be alarmed,” he added quickly, which didn't really help, “the hole is caused by a buildup of energy inside of your soul - perfectly natural. We call this a soul suture. They are rare, but not unheard of in young monsters. Usually, they heal as the person learns to monitor the flow of magic through their soul.

“In your case, it has gone unchecked, purely because you have no control over this part of yourself. You could no more control the beating of your heart than you could the activity of your soul. Essential energy is being drawn into your soul more readily than it should, and eventually it overflows. That is why you have these occasional 'seizures' - a soul seizure, if you will.”

He stopped here, his intense gaze burning into the far wall, as if he intended to write down his thoughts there. Seri fiddled with her oversized blouse.

“Then, Doctor Gaster, how will I ever get better if I cannot control my soul?”

“Hmm?" He seemed to return from deep within his own thoughts, and took a moment to answer her. "Because I will teach you, of course.” His eyes glinted with their purple mischief as he turned back to her. She felt as though her eyes must be shining too, with how enthused she was about this idea.

“How?”

His eyes narrowed at her obvious excitement. “I’m afraid that the first step is not quite so interesting - you shall have to learn to calm yourself. Becoming agitated or stressed will cause your soul to take in more energy as a defence mechanism.”

“But. How could doing that defend me, when I can’t do anything with it?”

“Ah, just an instinct…” He looked away, through the window where the light was beginning to dim. “A habit left over from the time when many humans used magic.”

“Oh…” Seri had heard stories about the mages - about a time when many humans could learn magic and used it to perform great heroic or villainous acts. “Are there any mages left now, doctor?”

The doctor seemed to think about this for a long time. He had forgotten to breathe again, and she could see him frowning at his reflection in the window. Seri waited patiently, studying his expression on the glass until he let out a sigh, and his pupils shifted to catch her eye through the reflection.

“I’m sure there are, Serenity. Certain, in fact.” He didn’t seem happy about this.

 

↭↭↭

 

The next day, Seri wore her very favourite dress. Their things had been unpacked and sorted, and they had given back all their borrowed clothes to the rabbit family, aside from the lovely red jacket, which the rabbit mother had insisted Seri keep.

It was a little cold for a dress, but she stubbornly wore it anyway. It wasn’t especially fancy - long, forest-green linen, with yellow embroidery at the hem. Since it wasn't a 'formal' dress, she could wear it without worrying about getting it dirty, and it was short enough that it didn’t snag on the floor or her big brown boots.

She had been trustworthy yesterday, despite her mother’s concerns, and so she had been given permission to make the walk to the doctor’s house alone again. Catherine walked with her some of the way, but upon reaching the central crossroads, she told Seri that she was going to visit some of the monsters who made food for the village and, in the spirit of the community, see if she could help them somehow in return for supplies. Seri knew her mother was enjoying the freedom as much as she was - in London it was too busy and too dangerous for Seri to go anywhere alone, so Catherine rarely got time to herself. With the peaceful seclusion of Refuge, she could make new connections and explore on her own, leaving Seri to do the same.

 

When Seri made it to the door, her knock wasn’t answered. She waited politely, only listening with her ear to the door for a moment before feeling guilty. She knocked again and when there was no answer, worry began to coil in her stomach. The doctor was never late, and he often beat her to the door before she needed to knock.

Perhaps he was sick and couldn’t make it to the door? Had he seemed out-of-sorts yesterday? She wasn’t sure - his mannerisms were all so peculiar that it was hard to see anything as truly abnormal.

After a third knock, she apologised to the door knocker and pushed on the handle. It was unlocked, at least. She felt terrible for entering, but she would only stay long enough to check that the doctor didn’t need a doctor himself.

She was just putting her shoes away before she started looking, when a tiny gasp made her spin around. At the foot of the stair, and absolutely tiny skeleton stood with his hands over his mouth. He was shorter than Seri by almost a foot, and his too-long shirtsleeves made him look even smaller. His eye sockets were huge compared to the size of his skull, and appeared even wider in his surprise at seeing Seri in the hallway.

Serenity made a tentative step towards him, but the movement startled him out of his shock and he yelped and shot off for the doorway into the lounge, accelerating at surprising speed.

She made chase, calling out to the tiny monster who didn’t reply, but made a beeline for the dining table at the far end of the room, weaving around behind it. She began to step around the corner of the table, only for the skeleton to mirror the movement, keeping them in stalemate at opposite sides of the table.

The monster let out a triumphant ‘hah!’ which quickly became another yelp of surprise as Seri smartly ducked beneath the table and crawled to reach her adversary. The skeleton sped off again, jumping her outstretched hands and making for the kitchen through the next door. Seri burst after him giggling.

The chase continued, with the monster staying well ahead despite his size. The duo made a full circuit of the ground floor, through the kitchen and laboratory, and back into the main hallway, both now hollering with laughter. By the second lap, Seri was so focused on her mark that she failed to notice the doctor standing there frowning until the tiny skeleton charged past his legs and slid to a stop, grasping his coat tails as a defence. The doctor raised a brow, arms crossed stiffly.

“Now just **what** is going on here?"

Seri almost flinched. He hadn’t raised his voice, but she had never heard that tone before. He tutted and addressed the tail of his jacket, where the other skeleton hid from view with his shoulders hunched defensively.

“Papyrus. I am working.”

Oh no, Seri thought; he truly was angry. “Ah! I’m sorry, Doctor. It was my fault; I was the one who chased first.” Seri tried to cover for the smaller monster, who gaped at her in surprise.

“Oh! No, it was me, papa! I started it!” The voice of the child was so powerful compared to his size that Seri was startled, and doubly so by his honest attempt to keep her out of trouble.

The doctor huffed. “Why are you here? You know not to come downstairs when I am working.”

“Yes. I do know that, but there was a knock at the door and I. Um.” He looked to Seri, silently calling for backup.

“U-uh, yes. When nobody answered the door, I came inside anyway. I shouldn’t have, but I-I was worried. I’m truly sorry, Doctor Gaster.” Seri managed with some effort to steel herself enough to look him in the eyes.

He held her gaze with a pinpoint glare, and it was all she could do to stop her instincts from sending her running. Just when she thought her knees would buckle, his expression softened. He ran one hand over his face and rested the other on his son’s head.

“Well, you are both commendable in your honesty.” He sighed.

 

Gaster had never intended to be quite so short with the pair of them. His soul still pulsed with nervous energy, though. He had been so careful to protect his children from contact with humans. That way, if it should come to it that humanity turned on his kind, at least the two smaller skeletons would have a chance of going unnoticed. Of course it would be curious little Papyrus that pulled that plan apart. He had warned both his sons about the dangers of humans, but Papyrus was so forgiving, so eager to make friends. Gaster couldn't bring himself to maintain much of his fear when he looked between the two children now before him. Serenity would never hurt his dear Papyrus.

He crouched down so that he could be closer to them both. “Serenity, this is my son, Papyrus.” He looked at the younger skeleton, coaxing him forwards. “Serenity here is my patient.”

Papyrus stiffened, and then abruptly put out his hand towards Seri. “It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Serenity!” Seri giggled taking his hand and shaking it earnestly. His tiny finger bones were very warm.

“It’s wonderful to meet you, Papyrus. You don’t have to call me Serenity - just Seri is fine.”

“But I like that name! It is very pretty.” Papyrus assured her. His father’s eyes were soft with affection now. He cleared his throat.

“Seri needs her checkup, so you will have to go back upstairs now. I shouldn’t be too long.” Papyrus nodded, and obediently made his way back out into the hallway, waving goodbye to Seri.

When the door closed behind Papyrus, Seri turned with a smile full of wonder to look at the doctor, who was still crouched. “I didn’t know you had any children, doctor.”

“Well, I…” He studied her, suddenly looking downtrodden. “Oh, goodness.”

The doctor rolled from his crouch into a sitting position on the laboratory floor, and seemed to deflate, all his usual professionalism dropping away. He rubbed a hand over the back of his skull, eyes downcast and sparks dim in his sockets. Seri sat down cross-legged before him, alarmed by his shift in demeanour.

 

“This may be difficult to hear,” he began, almost whispering, “but I shall be clear with you. I do in fact have two sons. Humans are only recent allies of monsterkind. We are accustomed to having to hide, being secretive, wary towards outsiders. I am in the habit of wanting to keep my sons safe, and therefore… I did not tell you.” He looked up gloomily. “Do you understand?”

Seri realised she had been holding her breath, so exhaled deeply, blinked her misted eyes clear, and made sure to maintain a sincere smile. Of course she understood, but the thought that he might have been afraid of her was painful enough; that he had learned to lie about the existence of his own children to keep them safe? That was too much.

“I understand, Doctor Gaster.” Her voice broke. She wanted to do anything she could to bring the light back into his eyes. “I don’t mind, really. I’m sorry for ruining your secret.”

“You needn’t apologise. It was very rude of me to keep you in the dark.” He smiled sadly. Seri really wished he wouldn’t frown at her so. The crease of his brow threw his eyesockets into shadow.

“I promise I'll keep it a secret?” She pleaded. Her voice wavered more than she would have liked, and she sniffled, trying to push back her tears.

“I couldn't possibly ask you to do that." He got to his feet and offered a hand to help her up. When she took it, he gripped it gently, her small fist totally enclosed in his spindle fingerbones. "Thank you for understanding, Seri."

She only realised later that that was the first time he had called her by her nickname.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


	3. Five Of Cups

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sign language and system errors.

Serenity sipped her fruit juice, using her feet to rotate on her barstool, watching all the interesting people in the cosy room. She felt very grown-up, being allowed to sit here at a bar with the adults chatting nearby.

Since Seri had met Papyrus, Doctor Gaster had been making attempts to be more friendly towards the Strands. Seri wondered about Papyrus and his mysterious sibling every day, but she had been very careful not to mention them, not even to the doctor. She wanted to prove that she could keep his secret.

She had drawn a little picture of Papyrus in her diary though, and did her best to spell his name correctly beside it - just in case she never got the chance to see him again before she went home. She didn’t want to forget him. She hid the diary in her pillowcase, so nobody would ever find out.

For today's act of friendliness, Doctor Gaster had brought the family to the hamlet’s best (and only) tavern. Her mother and the doctor were now talking animatedly to the barman, drinks in hand.

The barman was without a doubt the most beautiful monster that Seri had seen so far. He was well-dressed in a black pinstripe suit with double-breasted buttons, and a white shirt with neatly-rolled sleeves held out of his way by metal bands. He wore slim glasses, which were rather helpful in locating his eyes; he was a fire elemental, after all.

Seri had heard many stories about monsters and magical creatures, but she had thought a fire elemental might live in a volcano and spend his time raining lava down upon everyone - clearly this was not the case.

Instead, the elemental had sparked with polite amusement when Doctor Gaster called him 'radiant', and now he was hovering nearby to listen to the doctor’s conversation with Catherine. She seemed happier than she had been in a while - after more than a fortnight here, she was reaccustomed to the doctor’s presence and they were chattering like old friends. Catherine looked less worried when she caught Seri's eye too, which was a relief.

 

Seri focussed on the adult's conversation. Doctor Gaster was less stern when he wasn’t being professional, and his voice wavered with mirth as he and Catherine recalled a tale to the elemental, apparently about Seri's father.

"...hardly a week since I had prescribed the treatment, and there he was stubbornly helping push that cart through the snow, still on his crutches. Quite the remarkable man."

"Nonsense." Catherine interjected boldly, "Without that treatment, Leo wouldn't have walked again. You are the remarkable one, doctor."

Here, the barkeeper signed something fluidly with his hands, and the doctor laughed melodiously, a glint in his eye as he tutted at the other monster.

"Traitor.” He said to the barman. “Grillby is unfortunately in agreement with you, my dear. I would beg to differ, but I don't **Strand** a **flaming** chance against the pair of you."

The doctor winked at Seri as he said this. He had been setting himself up for that same joke a lot more than he probably should, but Serenity still found it funny every time. Grillby crossed his arms indignantly, and Gaster and Catherine fell into airy giggles. It made her content to hear the adults laugh - neither her mother nor the doctor looked this happy very often, regularly giving the stiff smiles adults use when they want people to accept that they’re ‘fine’.

Seri concentrated as the barkeeper signed something else to Doctor Gaster, trying to work out what he was saying. The treatment session today had been a lesson for both the Strands, to teach them the basics of sign language - just numbers, letters, and some useful words. The doctor said that it would help in emergencies - if her soul’s thrumming overpowered her hearing again, Seri would still be able to communicate with her mother and the doctor.

Seri struggled a bit with remembering the signs but she did her best, even though she was shy about making mistakes, and sure she would never be as quick with it as Doctor Gaster, whose fingers moved daintily through symbols like he was playing the piano.

Part of the doctor’s reasoning for bringing them to the tavern today was that the elemental barkeeper spoke using sign language. Apparently, Grillby was the one who had taught Doctor Gaster to sign - he could talk, but he preferred not to since most people couldn’t understand him very well. His peaceful, crackling warmth made Seri braver, and it hadn't taken her long to attempt a stilted conversation with him, while Doctor Gaster smiled and gave prompts where needed. 

 

Presently, Seri’s attention was drawn to the door as the bell signified the entrance of newcomers. It was getting towards evening now, and most of the village had finished working for the day. This group caught Serenity’s eye for two reasons. One was that Wood Wolf was amongst them, so she waved and smiled brightly at him. The wolf only nodded his head, ponderous as always. It was nice to see him with friends rather than alone in the forest.

The second reason for her attention was that there were three humans amongst the group. She knew that there were a handful of humans living in Refuge, but she was so used to seeing monsters now that it was almost stranger to see regular old humans.

These men were ex-soldiers. Seri could recognise the type by the look of them - they always had scars, or walked with a limp, and had faces that made them look older than they were; something shadowy about the eyes. But these three were joking and talking joyfully, and one walked hand-in-hand with a pretty white rabbit woman that Seri recognised from their shared dwelling.

The party came up to the bar, drawing Grillby away from the conversation with the others. He put his hands up over his chest to sign something very quickly to Gaster before he turned away. Seri didn't have time to even register the sign, but Gaster returned a discreet motion with one hand, smiling softly.

 

Seri was allowed to stay up late that evening. She and her mother ate a meal of locally-grown vegetables and rice prepared by Grillby, dusted with spices and perfectly cooked. The adults laughed and drank and told stories for a long time, one of the ex-soldiers coming to join them at the bar. He recognised the Strands, and ruffled Seri's hair with a huge, calloused palm.

Wood Wolf came over and awkwardly greeted Seri too, before sitting at the bar beside her. She introduced the wolf to her mother, who shook his paw. Seri’s heart brimmed with peace, sitting here beside the warmth of Grillby’s flames, a massive wolf on one side and a lanky skeleton on the other. She and her mother, and the other humans here, were accepted without question, even if some monsters were afraid of humans like Doctor Gaster had told her. Despite it all, there was a feeling of community here that she had never experienced back in London.

 

They stayed until it began to get quieter in the tavern. The rabbit lady and her partner were curled up together in an armchair by the fireplace, giggling softly, and Wood Wolf was snoozing on the bar, his nose whistling as he snored. Serenity was very sleepy, her head leaning to rest on the wolf’s great furry shoulder. Soon, they waved goodbye to Grillby, who sparked and signed something again in a flash that could only be understood by the doctor.

Doctor Gaster insisted on walking the two of them home, even though it was only a short distance. He graciously gave Serenity his long grey scarf to wear, since it was extremely cold outside. The wind had picked up so Seri wrapped the scarf tightly around her and covered her ears and nose. The wool smelled like old book pages and woodsmoke. The skeleton held Seri’s hand, and had his arm politely supporting Catherine's for the journey back home.

 

↭↭↭

 

The next day, Seri came to the doctor's house unaccompanied again. Her mother had been too fast asleep and had only grumbled when Seri tried to wake her, so the child had set a glass of water by the bedside, a note underneath it so that her mother wouldn't worry, and then she set off on her own, hood pulled up against the rain.

There were very few monsters out today, and it was very peaceful on the track out of town. She only passed two monsters on the road: the helmet-wearing tortoise she had talked to before, and an orange lizard catching raindrops on their tongue.

The doctor was prompt to meet her at the porch and take her into the examination room. He took her jacket to dry by the fireplace, and fetched a warm towel for his patient which was now draped about her shoulders.

He began, as usual, with an explanation which she only half understood.

“One major cause of overactivity in your soul is emotional distress. Though you are a well-adjusted child, the ability to maintain your resolve under pressure will be invaluable even in everyday life. I would like you to practice something with me.

“Should you find yourself in a stressful situation, first make sure that your breathing is regular.” The skeleton paused here to demonstrate with several deep breaths, and indicated for her to follow suit. She did her best to copy, but not a chance: one of the doctor’s breaths was probably three times the capacity of Serenity’s. She rolled her eyes.

“Doctor, I am much smaller than you, so that is hardly fair.”

Doctor Gaster chuckled at her attitude. He was glad that she found it so easy to be confident with him. “You needn’t keep up with me - I am at the advantage of not having lungs to begin with. Simply breathe steadily, until you feel relaxed and your heart rate becomes regular.”

He pulled a pen from his pocket. “Now, pick up a nearby object, one that you can hold easily, like this.” He held the pen out to her, and she took it inquisitively.

“I would like you to take in the details of the object to ground yourself in reality. What do your senses tell you?”

She studied the pen. It was a good one, with copper and blue casing and a metal orb on the end of the pocket-clip. She relayed this to the doctor.

“Good. Alternatively, you can-” A faint noise from outside the room interrupted him. He cleared his throat before restarting. “-you can take stock of your surroundings. Compiling a mental list allows you to find your feet, as it were. Try that for me now."

Seri shuffled to look about uncertainly. She didn't really understand what the doctor meant. "Um… uh. It's..." She lowered her head sheepishly.

The doctor chuckled. "May I start for you?"

Serenity nodded. The doctor held up one slender finger.

"One; today is Thursday."

"Oh! I see." Seri smiled. "Two; it's raining."

"Excellent!" There was another noise outside, which the doctor pointedly ignored. "Three; we are warm and safe inside."

Seri felt as though this was a game. "Four-"

**Thunk.**

The noise reverberated loudly through the wall directly behind Doctor Gaster, and he jolted upright and squinted at the offending wall.

"-there's a noise outside." She finished.

He sighed. “Please excuse me a moment, Serenity.” He placed his notes down beside her and hastily strode into the hallway, leaving Serenity alone.

She wiggled her chilly toes, and held her breath to see if she could hear the doctor moving about. Nothing. As usual his footsteps were quieter than a spider’s, and there wasn’t a creak from the wooden floorboards or the staircase.

 

Just as Seri gave up listening and released the breath she was holding, there was another impressive thump which startled her. She slipped down from the table and padded over to inspect that wall more thoroughly, putting her ear to it.

…

…

**Thunk, thunk... thunk!**

She gasped. Accompanying the heavy metallic noise, she was sure she heard someone shout in rage. Then, she heard Doctor Gaster talking lowly. The wall muffled his words as well as the response from whoever he was talking to, meaning that Seri could only hear the dark firmness of the doctor’s voice and the rough, deep tones of the other. Then, Doctor Gaster growled:

“ **Stay. Out.** ”

There was a final impact of metal on metal, and the electrical lights in the room flared for a moment. Seri backed sharply away from the wall. Doctor Gaster sounded terrifying, and she had been wrong to think he was truly angry when he had snapped at her and Papyrus before. Whoever had been outside had surely turned tail instantly in the face of the doctor’s wrath. She wondered who would be outside in the rain, and who the doctor would possibly talk to in such a manner - he was usually so polite.

Serenity scrambled back onto the examination table with some difficulty, but managed to compose herself before the doctor returned to the room, with his shoulders stiff and pupils small and pale. He had one hand up to his face, massaging his nasal bridge.

“My apologies. I will have to cut our session short. Something has come up.” He sounded strained.

“I hope everything is alright, doctor?” Serenity slipped down from the table again, wide eyes searching the skeleton’s face.

“I’m certain it will be, but I’m afraid this matter will not wait.”

 

↭↭↭

 

As soon as she left the house, he hurried back to the office, pushing through the disguised door which gave a hiss of escaping air. He ducked through into the purple gloom beyond. The Machine was dormant and silent now. He ran his thin fingertips over the warped glass. That was a little too close for comfort.

Normally, the Inversion didn't make such a concerted effort to break in, amusing himself with tormenting the doctor while he worked. This time, he had actually managed to put a fresh crack in the viewport that was designed to withstand immense atmospheric pressure.

Gaster's heart sunk. He would have to source a new pane for that window urgently, and it was so hard to get humans to ship that sort of thing all the way north, without even considering the effort involved in refitting the pane by himself. Curse this uninvited guest.

 

Since he had first calibrated the Machine he had had enough run-ins and disruptions to drive him half mad; doppelgangers from other universes, adamant on giving him their opinions or well-meaning advice, or in one case repeatedly attempting to use the Machine before he had managed to get it working himself.

While some of the advice had been helpful, he did not appreciate otherworldly intruders; especially not those who looked disconcertingly like one of his sons, grown up and distorted by inverted colours: the reason Gaster had given him the name 'the Inversion'.

He had spectated on many other versions of his sons, in the future of other universes. Sometimes those universes were vastly, unnervingly different from his own. Sometimes his sons were almost unrecognisable. Sometimes they were never born at all.

The circumstances in the other universes varied greatly too. Some were peaceful. Some ended in extinction for humans or monsters. Some were harsh, dusty and murderous. Discovering those ones was the worst feeling - seeing his gentle children growing up cruel and deceitful, seeing his king do unjust and cowardly things in the name of freedom. Though his soul ached for those other realms, until he perfected the Machine he could do nothing for them. The work must continue.

 

He had a cabinet of notes on all the universes he had encountered so far. He had recorded each universe briefly - it was clear from a mere glance of the multiverse that even an omnipresent being couldn’t hope to record every detail of each one.

After only a few days of study, it had become clear that the Inversion was a problem. Much like his appearance, his personality was heavily warped - not calm and passive like his own Sans, but aggressive and unrelenting. He had taken an active dislike to the doctor’s activities and went out of his way to use the Machine against him. So far, he had only succeeded in frustrating or startling the doctor, and he appeared to be unable to fully transfer into the Alpha without assistance.

 

Gaster decided to risk turning the Machine back on. He gripped the breaker switch and pulled the lever down with a grunt - it was intentionally heavy and archaic, so that his sons wouldn't think to turn it on out of impulse. He didn’t wish to exclude his children from his work, especially since his older son took quite an interest in it, but for now they were a little young to be getting too involved.

The Machine groaned and whirred back to life, draining the power to the house’s lighting for a moment. The activity lights on the console flickered in startup sequence and the monitor flashed up lines of code in blocky green text.

He was proud of his work, though frustrated by it. The Relativity Corridor Machine, or just the Machine as he had come to call it, was originally intended to supply him with visual and auditory data from other universes for passive study, but upon seeing the state of the other universes he had become obsessed with designing a transport system to and from those universes most in need of aid.

If the Inversion's interactions with Alpha were anything to go by, the transport corridor was functioning, but he had yet to actually walk upon the soil of another world. If he could perfect it, then so many people could be saved…

This whole endeavour had begun as a hobby, but there was a cause for his increased obsession with the project. He had watched kind, gentle Asgore - the king of monsterkind - declare war to defend his people, take up arms and kill in the name of freedom, only to lose. 

He had watched his friends forced into a cave-prison for eternity. He had watched bright, passionate Grillby become pale and unambitious, giving up on his own future and resigning himself to a simple life. He had watched his sons grow up having never seen the sky, never felt the sun. Papyrus was unable to live out his bold dreams, and Sans’s aspirations were abandoned in favour of apathy. If Gaster found a way to save those universes less lucky than Alpha, he would, even at his own expense.

Every day, his mind replayed the second-hand experience of being forced underground by the humans. He had spectated on the whole thing via the Machine’s Temposcope, designed especially for the purpose. Morbid curiosity made him look, and the desire to reach his goal made him keep watching.

 

_It had been an inappropriately bright day. The winter sun threw the battle line into silhouette as Gaster fought beside his king and the stronger monsters, against the humans with their mages and mechanical weapons. His people didn’t stand a chance - for every human killed, five monsters fell, until there were less than 200 monsters left standing. Soul-lines went extinct that day. They had no choice but to surrender._

_The air inside the cavern was filled with the echoes of loss and terror. Some chose to stay - to die alongside their fallen comrades rather than be imprisoned. The majority of those left alive were those who did not fight. Childless parents wept and clung to the orphaned children of their fallen friends._

_Older, braver children stared up at the prison walls with newfound hatred. They would grow to become warriors, and abandon the principles of kindness and compassion taught to all monster children._

_Wounded monsters threw their weight against the magical barrier, roared at the mages watching from beyond, desperately excavated the solid rock walls only to find that the barrier encompassed the entire mountain._

_Some then pleaded for direction from their King, whose pristine white fur was now matted with blood and dust, and whose eyes streamed with defeated tears. The queen stepped in then, held those who were afraid, and lead the group further into the depths of the mountain, away from the light and the evil of humans, and towards a place they would come to call Home._

  

He never wanted such a fate for his people. The foreknowledge could protect them from it to some extent, and in Alpha monsters had managed to prosper well beyond the date that the war had begun in the other worlds. But there was always the threat, and he would always be able to see the conditions in other universes. He wished so deeply to reach out and rescue those forced to live in desperation and stagnancy. But he could only watch and listen. For now.

He checked the monitor. The readings from before the Machine had been hastily disconnected suggested that the Inversion had been physically present inside the Vestibule - the Machine’s transport chamber. That meant that it was in fact doing the job it was meant to do.

Doctor Gaster was glad that he had the forethought to install a magic-proof seal and a lock on both the inside and the outside of the chamber - if it weren’t for that, the Inversion would likely have broken through this time, and made good on his threats to destroy the Alpha universe, starting with the doctor himself. The doctor shuddered, recalling briefly the furious, distorted voice of the intruder as he was thwarted once again.

This sort of incident was to be expected. Things could have theoretically been an awful lot worse, and the doctor understood the dangers of working in such an unexplored area of science. He was a monster standing at the edge of a sea cliff, unaware of what lurked in the fathoms of the ocean below him, but longing to explore its secrets. One hostile creature wasn’t going to put him off jumping in.

 

A flicker on the console caught Gaster’s eye, and he stepped forward to take a look. Some sort of visual error was occurring at the lower edge of the screen, with numbers and letters jumbling together as they scrolled to the bottom of the monitor. Hmm.

The doctor tapped the screen with one fingertip a few times, and adjusted the connection of a wire or two. No change. What could the problem be?

The setup wasn’t especially complex; just some slightly futuristic computer components - nothing compared to some of the wonders he’d seen through the Temposcope. A couple of magic reservoirs here and there to keep everything in check, and the viewchamber itself of course, fitted with scanners for temperature, light, air pressure, and magic levels.

He checked all those components. Nothing was amiss. The device was still accumulating digits in a band across the bottom of the monitor, and it appeared to be getting worse. He was at somewhat of a loss. The only part of the Machine that he didn’t know like the surface of his own soul was the Temporal Core, which had been… donated to him several years ago when the project was still in its early phases.

He had been unable to get the Machine to function at all to begin with. One day, he had turned the Machine on to run through the same tests he had run sixty-something times, only to have the thing shudder and drone with the most incredible noise. Once the scan cycle had finished, he opened the chamber to find a cylindrical steel object that looked like it was specifically designed to fit into his Machine’s terminal casings.

After that, everything functioned perfectly, but with only one version of the Core he couldn’t be certain of its inner-workings. He was attempting to recreate it, but so far he’d had no luck. He speculated that the item had been sent to him by his future self, but the paradoxical ramifications of that were monumental, so he couldn’t be certain of such a wild theory.

 

A change in the hum of the Machine brought his wandering mind back into focus. The monitor was still filling up with digits. He grumbled to his creation as he crouched to check the Core. No problems there either, though he could feel some purple magic leaching from it. He stood back up.

“ **B͎̭̗͚̃̇͊̓Ŏ̧͎̤̂̎O͟!͇̃͆ͅ** ”

The exclamation ripped through the silence and made him step back over a cable trailing behind him. He fell backwards, grabbing hold of the nearest cabinet for balance. The intruder cackled, and the doctor could hear the air spark and warp with every harsh syllable.

“What’s the matter, doc? Gravity gettin’ you down?” The Inversion was back in the tank, leering crazedly through the glass. His voice was grating and full of interference like scratches on a record. Gaster pushed himself upright and rolled the wrist he had put his weight on, not giving the intruder the courtesy of a response.

“Aww, come on. Don’t give me the cold shoulder.” He spoke as if this was a game to him, which was all the more disturbing.

Gaster huffed. “I will say it again, _sir_. You do not belong in this universe. Please return to your own.” He began to step towards the power breaker, giving himself time to analyse the being, but also aware that the Inversion was likely doing exactly the same thing.

“If you let me in, I’ll stop putting you through all this. Promise.” He sang the word like it would make it more believable.

The doctor decided to make an assumption. “You have five seconds to leave of your own accord, or I will do it manually.”

He waited. No response.

“Five.” The Inversion squinted his yellow eyes.

He took another step forward. “Four.”

The intruder sighed with a crackle of static. “Come on, doc, do we have to do this again?”

“Three.” There was a distorted growl from the tank.

“Two.” Gaster reached out his hand to grip the switch tightly.

“One!” Just as Gaster threw his weight onto the breaker, the Inversion disappeared from the tank with another raucous howl of laughter. The Machine shuddered back into dormancy.

Gaster kicked over the trashcan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I added a new ship tag, I can't believe I overlooked such an important one!
> 
> ...aaaaand Dadster continues to over-science everything he says, sorry.


	4. The Royal City

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A discussion of perspective, and an exercise in trust.

Error was preceded by his laughter as he burst into the Dark Void in a shower of cubic particles. That was definitely worth the risk of forceful ejection from Universe 003 again. He flopped down in the nothingness and wiped an ultramarine tear of mirth from his cheekbone. It almost made it more worth it that the doctor was so _dead-set_ on keeping him out.

It had taken a long time to find a doorway into Universe 003, or ‘Alpha’ - such central universes tended to be masked under layers and layers of offshoot timelines that formed a messy shield of sorts. 003 was right below the central node: Doc G might be arrogant to label that universe ‘Alpha’, but he wasn’t far from the truth.

Alpha was dull and uninteresting compared to the other root universes, but it was the origin of a large number of the timelines where things didn’t go horribly wrong for monsterkind. There was never a human-monster war. The Sans from that universe was happy and hopeful and naive. There was no sign of corruption, and absolutely no anomalies.

Until things started to get interesting, in about… Hmm…

Error pulled at a green-blue string of code trailing nearby in the darkness, and watched it unravel the threads of 003’s history in front of him. Oh, only about seven years from when he had just been? That’s when things finally got _really_ fun. Seven years really wasn’t a long time when you could skip the boring bits.

It didn’t matter how many times he tried to warn that brazen scientist; he wouldn’t stop poking about in theories his mind just couldn’t comprehend. You only get a solid understanding of the true nature of causality if you see it from the outside - you can’t just prod about in the dark and hope not to get a shock.

Even Error and that voyeur Ink couldn’t see everything, especially not in the root universes. Sure, Error could tell from the ripples in the code when the really big things happened, but when spectated on from the outside, the events were disjointed, too confusing to put together without causing him a headache.

 

There was a disturbance in the web of code that spread out into the darkness around him. He tensed, and glared at a spot in the near-distance. About three seconds later, an orange ellipse appeared there, and splashed unwanted colour into his part of the Void. The only neighbour he had in the realms of limbo stepped through, already with an uptight look on his ink-spattered face.

“So, you finally decided to come back?” He asked rhetorically. “I was worried you might’ve gotten trapped in the Machine.” His eternally apathetic voice assured Error that Ink wasn’t worried about him at all.

“I was taking a walk. What are you, my mother?”

Ink silently put his hands on his hips, brow raised and waiting for Error to confess. Of course, Error knew that Ink spent his entire life prying into the private activities of others, supposedly due to the mind-numbing monotony of his own existence. He could just as well surveil the Dark Void, and find out when Error went out to do his ‘work’.

Error huffed. “Fine. I was in Alpha.”

“You got in?” Ink’s voice stayed monotone, but his mismatched eyelights brightened, betraying his intrigue.

“...No.”

“Error, I thought you said you had a plan?”

“Get off my ass. If it’s so important, why don’t you find me a way in there? I don’t work for you, paperboy.” Error turned to face the darkness, so that he didn’t have to see the frustrated expression on Ink’s paper-white skull.

“I’m trying. And fine, you’re not obligated to help me. But if you don’t, there’s gonna be a hell of a lot more work for you to do.”

“Maybe I like my job?”

Ink just laughed at that, light and mocking. His right pupil morphed into an orange crescent. Error growled halfheartedly. His unwanted houseguest was right, as usual. A little honest work now would save him from a lot of nonsense later.

Unfortunately, Ink knew that Error’s preferred state was absolute idleness; when you spend an indefinable amount of time having only one person for company, you get to know them whether you want to or not.

However, that worked both ways; Error knew that Ink was helpless without him. He was the only one who could permanently stop the corruption of a glitched universe, and protect those around it. Ink needed his skills, so he had to pretend to be nice to him.

The current point of conflict was that back in 003, things were about to go haywire due to the doctor’s meddling. Error personally didn’t care - the doctor’s work would just lead to the collapse of nearby universes, which made Error’s job all the easier.

He saw it as a sort of self-inflicted quarantine: the doctor was about to make a mistake which would destroy enough neighbouring universes to isolate Alpha almost completely.

Ink had argued. He _hated_ that so many universes were going to be destroyed because of Alpha. He had tried to convince Error to help him stop the corruption, but Error had more important universes to delete.

He wasn’t interested.

That was, until it became clear that Gaster’s experiments were actually intended to _import_ people from other universes - infecting Alpha with glitches from doomed timelines that the doctor insisted on trying to ‘save’.  A whole bunch of abominations, all in one place. That got Error’s attention.

Another convincer came from the fact that being forcefully locked out of somewhere was bound to make you want to get in there all the more. It was worth it just to spirt the doctor, who was so very conscientious about keeping his doors locked. _Ink_ could get in - there was no way of stopping someone who could just paint themselves into the universe as they pleased - but he couldn’t bring Error with him, and he was utterly powerless without his help.

They were opposite sides of a coin - creation and destruction respectively. It had become clear to the both of them that the two abilities were not made equal, and there was a clear winner when it came to which one was more powerful.

 

Error was undecided on whether he actually cared about stopping Alpha-Gaster. If he did it Ink’s way then the painter might leave him alone for five minutes, and he would owe Error a really big favour, but it was more interesting to just watch how things went off-course for the perfect little family once the doc truly screwed things up.

So, to delete 003 before it could do any harm, or wait until the corruption set in and destroyed the other damned universes for him? He hadn’t decided, not yet.

 

↭↭↭

 

Gaster was already anxious. He was still within eyeshot of the house and yet he couldn’t keep the nerves at bay. He had never left his sons to their own devices for more than a few hours, and although he knew Sans was responsible, he was still only 10 years old. By monster standards, he was old enough to look after himself and his younger sibling, but it still put the controlling scientist on edge.

This outing was necessary, though, and he didn’t feel right forcing the two mischievous boys on Grillby again, especially since it was the weekend, and the bar would be busy. He was trying to see it as an exercise in trust, and had almost convinced himself it would be fine. He had cancelled his usual Friday afternoon appointment with Serenity so that he could be ready by Saturday morning.

The scientist could not wait any longer to speak to the King about his findings, and he didn’t want to risk sending a letter and having it intercepted. Call him paranoid, but he really didn’t like to send his findings on paper where others might read them. He still wrote letters, but they would end up in a locked drawer, unsent and sealed.

 

Gaster trod the waterlogged cobbles past Grillby’s bar, avoiding the worst of the icy puddles at the entrance to the stableyard beyond. It was a tiny place, managed by the fawn family and housing just three horses who were currently sheltering from the rain. The hamlet’s single horse-drawn cart was secured below a canvas, pegged down to the sodden earth.

There was no stablehand to be seen, so the doctor unlatched the stable door of the horse he was most used to riding - Diomar, an alert-eyed grey around 17 hands - plenty large enough for his lanky stature, and sturdy enough to stand the long journey.

As the door opened, the horse stepped out into the yard without needing to be chivvied and waited politely to be tacked up. While mostly non-magical, animals still have a sort of affinity with monsters, and do not shy from even larger, more bestial monsters in the way they might from humans. It made training large, stubborn creatures such as horses much easier.

 

With still no fawns to be seen after Gaster had tacked up the horse, he rummaged through his saddlebags for a gold coin and held it tightly in his bony grip for a moment, imprinting it with a purple brand of his magic where his finger bones had been. He left it on the door of the empty stall, so that the fawns would know who had taken Diomar out.

As he brought the horse around to the mounting block, there was a crack behind him. He looked up. Under the eaves by the back entrance to the bar, sheltering carefully from the rain, stood Grillby. He beckoned for the doctor with a minute curl of his fingers, his other arm wrapped around himself protectively.

Gaster stepped up to join the elemental beneath the shelter, holding his travel coat wide around the both of them to keep any stray raindrops away from his companion.

“You should be more careful, dear flame, you’ll be put out.” He smiled gently. Grillby was close enough that the heat from his flickering form warmed Gaster’s face. Grillby tilted his head, signing swiftly. There was a stretch of silence but for the sound of the rain, and the crackle of his flames in the wind as Gaster watched him, eyelights following his hands.

“Yes, I am, I shall be returning within three days.” He answered the elemental, then watched his silent response.

“...Sans has been put in charge this time. I should hope they won’t get into too much trouble.”

Grillby shrugged, then signed again, face shifting to a muted expression of confusion.

“Well,” Gaster sighed, “I didn’t want to trouble you with it again…”

Grillby merely looked up to catch the doctor’s eye with a vexed expression.

“I appreciate your help, truly, but my sons should be given the opportunity to prove their responsibility. However, if you wouldn’t mind, perhaps you could check in on them while I am away?”

Grillby gave a rare smile, the flames around the lower section of his face parting to show the white heat within. Gaster found he couldn’t think of anything else to say, and simply returned the smile affectionately. The rain picked up in a gust of wind, giving the skeleton the excuse to draw in closer to the elemental’s warmth. The silence lasted a soul-beat too long.

“Y-you really should go back inside, you know.” Gaster found his voice reluctant. “Thank you Grillby, and farewell. I shall return soon.”

He turned to go to his horse who waited patiently, resting one leg. As he did, he felt a fluttering warmth at his wrist. Droplets of rain fell across Grillby’s hand, making the flames hiss. Gaster gasped and turned back towards him to keep him from being doused.

Grillby’s eyes were locked on Gaster’s as he drew the skeleton in by his hand, gently but firmly guiding his hand up to his mouth in a warm, fluttering kiss. Gaster drew in close, his damp overcoat turning Grillby’s flames blue where it touched him, and he returned the kiss with his own, tender and chaste upon the elemental’s luminous cheek.

Before he could embarrass either of them further, he whispered one more farewell and hurriedly made his way back across the yard to mount his horse. He waved a goodbye, watching until Grillby was safely out of the rain with the door closed before he urged Diomar out of the yard and onto the road.

 

After he had made it out of the forest and the rain had eased a little, he halted the horse and dug out the map he had stowed in the saddlebags. A red line marked the best route to the Royal City, and he had already decided where he would employ his shortcuts, marking them down in blue, allowing for the time needed to recover his magic reserves between each one.

It was a long journey; nearly two days each way by foot. It was too far to employ the use of magic for the whole distance - hence the need for the horse - but at least he could plot shortcuts into the journey and save himself and Diomar the trouble of the steepest hills and deepest river valleys.

Gaster had learned the landmarks and trade roads of the island well enough by now to be able to make use of some shortcuts. It was going to be strenuous, as a shortcut became easier to travel through the more it was used, like a well-trodden path through the forest. But at least he would get there before nightfall, and returning would be all the easier.

 

He neatly folded and stowed his map again, and turned back briefly towards home. It was no longer visible; all the buildings and streets of Refuge were completely hidden by the pine trees. His soul twisted anxiously. He wished he could bring his sons along, but they were still too young to make the journey with him.

Worry would get him nowhere, and besides, the children were safe in the house. The Machine was disconnected and Grillby could be trusted to check in on them. They would be fine.

 

↭↭↭

 

A good hour’s travel south-east from the forest, he came upon the first tricky area of bog and marshland. He had been following the river up to this point, and now he would need to cross over. He dismounted and took Diomar by the bridle, navigating carefully on the marshy ground.

At a point where the ground was sturdier, he took off his gloves and summoned his reserves of magic, channelling them into deep indigo trails at his fingertips, while many disembodied skeletal hands coalesced in the air around him. The hands gripped the fabric of reality taut, and he swiped his fingers downwards to cut through. The hands secured the edges of a tunnel through existence.

Gaster smiled at his _handiwork_ , and guided the horse through. If Diomar noticed the change of scenery, he didn’t seem to mind. The tunnel closed behind the pair of them and Gaster took a moment to survey their new location, breathing out a deep sigh. Indigo magic was one of the most complex to channel, as it took an awful lot of concentration to manipulate the fabric of reality itself.

After he had collected himself, he surveyed the horizon. From the rocky hillside they now found themselves on, he could make out the track of the dirt road that humans used to trade between the tiny coastal outposts in the west and a sizeable port to the east. A trade caravan wove between the rocky slopes, still quite a way off but heading in their direction. He urgently put his gloves back on and pulled up his hood before leading Diomar down the hillside.

He was fortunate to be of a stature and body type that humans could mistake for their own kind. Some monsters such as the elementals or bears would have to be very brave to make this journey alone - they had no hope of staying unnoticed by the small population of humans on the island, and the further south one travelled, the more humans there were.

If you were lucky, you might only cross paths with humans who would simply ignore monsters, while others might become fearful or violent. Technically, there was peace between humans and monsters nowadays, but should a human choose to take aggressive action against a monster, out here in the wilderness?

What were the chances of another traveller being nearby to step in, or of even finding that monster’s dust scattered on the moors? It wasn’t worth the risk, and the citizens of Refuge would often choose to take the longer, rougher trip by sea than travel on foot.

 

Gaster squinted his sockets, calculating that he was not going to make it across the road before the humans reached his position. He would either need to hide or pretend to be human. He scanned the slope, but it was barren, only heather and thick bundles of grasses with nowhere to hide himself and Diomar. No choice, then.

He brought Diomar down onto the track and remounted swiftly, keeping the horse at a slow and lazy pace. That way, the cart might pass without paying him any mind. His soul defensively readied the remaining dregs of his magic without his prompting it. He could hear the cart now, but didn’t look up for fear of giving himself away beneath his deep hood.

The wheels of the cart clattered upon the dirt behind him, and he nudged Diomar to the side of the road. As the carriage came level with him, the driver, equally bundled up in a travel cloak against the chill, called out a short greeting in the thick accent of the isle’s natives. Gaster returned it, taking on the rounded vowels of the accent too, so as not to make himself seem in any way unusual.

The cart passed without incident, Gaster holding his breath and steadying his soul as he watched the vehicle hasten away from him. As soon as it was out of sight, he steered Diomar clear of the road and down onto the shale-littered slopes beside it, and soon he was safely on his way to the coast, hidden amongst the rocks.

 

Not long after, Gaster encountered the shattered coastline that marked the border of the peninsula. Charcoal grey, barnacle-encrusted rocks rose jaggedly at the water's edge, and a tiny black-sand beach was revealed by the low tide. The doctor decided that this would be a safe place to rest.

He took half an hour or so to let Diomar rest and drink from the little stream that tumbled down between the rocks towards the shore. A light rain cooled them both as they recovered, and the doctor found shelter below a cliff face to check his map again. Its would be several hours until he had the energy to use another shortcut, but luckily from here he would be less likely to encounter any humans.

For the next leg of the journey, they would have to navigate the forests around the foothills of Mount Ebott. Here, Gaster had planned a slight detour. He had made good time, and there was something he wished to investigate upon the mountainside.

 

↭↭↭

 

If he didn’t know what he was looking for, he might easily have missed it. The entrance was overgrown with vines and masked by drifts of trees, but it was there. His second-hand memory of the place was foggy, but after some meandered wandering, he found what he was looking for.

He was unsure whether he should be relieved or disappointed. On the one hand, the mountain pass was exactly as he had expected to find it, but on the other, he had half hoped it would be different. He had hoped that the gaping maw simply wouldn't be there.

Across almost every timeline, every universe, every version of his friends and family, this is where they were imprisoned. This was the entrance to that accursed maze of caverns that the entire monster population called 'Home', thanks to humanity’s fear and selfishness.

He threw a rock into the dark just to hear it clatter along the passage. He knew it was irrational, but he couldn't find the will to push himself across the threshold where the barrier stood in the other timelines. He might not have lived through the experience, but he had watched other versions of himself do so.

It didn't make him feel better to see it in person. He doubted he would find the nerve to travel further than the mouth of the cave, so mapping the terrain inside was out of the question, for now. However, being here did somewhat harden his resolve to rescue his alternate-universe loved ones.

If he was to do so, however, he needed the wisdom of his old friend, to guide him through this experiment and through the countless moral dilemmas of displacing people from their own universes without their consent or understanding.

He had considered what his own reaction might be to being whisked away from everything he knew, without his permission, into a world where things were utterly different, where the history that he knew didn't apply. He wouldn't be happy about it, but if it meant that his sons could be saved from the years of torment they had endured in other iterations? He would accept.

 

↭↭↭

 

By evening, and with one more shortcut to avoid the treacherous eastern slopes of the mountain, Gaster had navigated the last rocky curve of the trail, and there, the city stood below them.

It was set into the dark rock of a small island, in the centre of a lake. It was easily defensible, and disguised well between crags and rock faces. Monsters often built their cities this way, so as not to leave scars upon the land or bring attention to themselves unnecessarily.

This island was especially fortuitous in that it was only accessible by foot intermittently, when the tide allowed for it. Of course, monsters with wings, fins or indigo magic weren’t troubled by this, but it certainly dissuaded human invaders. The doctor could see that the bridge was currently submerged below the lake's surface. There was no helping it; he would have to leave Diomar behind here.

At the near side of the lake, there was a sturdy shack, with a lean-to stable along the side. A heavily-armoured warhorse was hitched there, bearing the crest of the Royal Guard upon its metal-clad flank. Gaster dismounted and brought Diomar in to rest in the adjacent shelter, thanking him for the journey, and bringing the hefty wooden crossbeam down behind him.

He made his way to the gatekeeper’s shack, and found a large black-and-white dog asleep with his arms propped upon the counter. Though he tried to wake the guard, he didn’t budge from his slumber no matter how the doctor prodded or called out, so Gaster let him be. Gatekeeper? Rather a gate _sleeper_ , he thought.

Instead, he summoned the last of his magic reserves, and located the shortcut between here and the city entrance. Although the use of this form of indigo magic was still very rare and unstable, it wasn’t unheard of for ghost- and spectre-type monsters to use the same techniques that his soul-line was able to employ.

This particular shortcut was well-used by such monsters, so it took a lot less concentration to transport himself into the entrance courtyard of the fortress. It was rather deserted, and the gate was closed due to the high tide.

He made his way leisurely through the quaint cobbled streets towards the palace, winding slowly upwards, past doors to well-kept stone houses, the scent of lovingly cooked dinners drifting out from every open doorway, between neighbours talking amicably and children playing in the narrow streets.

Unlike Refuge, the city was utterly safe, defended by its high walls and the prestigious and ferocious Royal Guard. Food was plentiful, the weather was kind, and the benevolent King and Queen oversaw and cared for all. This showed, as the denizens of the city were carefree and open, each waving and greeting the doctor with warm smiles.

Gaster and the other pioneers had worked hard to build Refuge, and he much preferred the secluded quiet of the village to the closely-built dwellings and bustle of the city, but it was refreshing to return from the stillness and solitude on occasion. He hoped that one day, his sons might spend some time living here. Loneliness was ever the companion of a scholar, but he didn’t wish it upon his sons, especially not Papyrus.

 

At the gate to the palace, he took note of the finest members of the Royal Guard, standing firm and tall in platinum armour, the crimson crests of their helms fluttering, and their webbed hands grasping luminous magical glaives.

A pang of deep sadness hit him, as he recalled something discovered during his investigations with the Machine. This race of proud aquatic people - the very finest warriors amongst monsterkind - was one of several, including his own race, to be reduced almost to extinction in all timelines but his own, killed defending the royal family during the war that never came to Alpha. At least they lived on here.

He was sure to thank the guards as they stood aside to welcome him in, and immediately he was brought back from his dark mood, as several older monsters who recognised him from his time serving as the Royal Scientist greeted him passionately.

A magnificent white bear in golden filigreed armour lumbered up onto his hind quarters to shake the doctor by the hand with both of his paws, teeth bared in a huge smile, and a very small skeleton in a purple robe dropped their stack of papers in an effort to frantically wave at him, which he returned with his one free hand, chuckling.

“Doctor Gaster!” Boomed a voice even bigger than its owner, echoing from every corner of the marble antechamber.

Before he had time to turn towards the voice, he was engulfed from above in white fur, deep, hearty laughter, and an undeniable embrace.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Something a little different this time - I felt the need for more traditional fantasy writing in my life.
> 
>  
> 
> _Ramblings: I have it in my mind that in Alpha, skeletons are much more common, as are the aquatic species that Undyne is descended from. Both races, along with tortoise and polar bear monsters, were especially loyal to the Royal Family, and were among those that chose to give their lives to protect the king and queen during the war, almost to their own extinction._


	5. The Unsaved

“He returns to us at last!” Asgore’s laugh rumbled through him as he was lifted from the floor in the furry embrace. “Welcome home, old friend.”

Gaster was planted back on the floor and turned around forcefully by his shoulders to face Asgore, slightly off-balance as he got his bearings and looked up to return the beaming smile of his oldest friend. The king’s royal purple robe was a little dusty, and a smudge of dirt on his muzzle marred the pure white of his fur.

“King Asgore, it is a pleasure to see you. Are you well?” He tried to cling onto his decorum despite the king’s display of honest affection, but was thwarted again as the king used a heavy velvet paw to begin steering him along one of the red-carpeted hallways.

“Enough of that ‘King’ nonsense, doctor, my wife will not stand for formalities in our home.” His voice was more ardent and mirthful than any other, projecting the passion he held for his people and his role as the leader of monsterkind. “I presume your journey was uneventful?”

“Thankfully, aside from a minor interaction with a human traveller.”

“Good, good, that’s what I like to hear. No doubt the human trade routes will be receiving less traffic as we head towards the winter.”

Asgore led Gaster through several marble hallways, where their footsteps echoed and assistants busied themselves, nodding as the duo passed them. Gaster was not especially used to feeling short at eight feet tall, but compared to the king he felt like a child. Asgore’s casual pace required a brisk stride for the doctor to keep up. He didn’t mind. He found it gave him a sense of comfort, and calmed the whirring of his mind.

He followed Asgore through a heavy door pushed open by the goat monster into a room that, even after his many years of working here at the palace, never failed to take his breath away.

Asgore’s pride and joy, a glasshouse with a vaulted roof and many arched windows that let in as much light as the unrelenting northern clouds would allow. The temperature in the conservatory was was a welcome change from the chill of the corridors, warmed by a stove burning gently in one corner.

Vines and climbing roses twined around decoratively-carved pillars set at intervals between the windows. Bonsai trees and firey-leaved acers stood watch, the light filtering gently through their leaves, more beautiful than any stained-glass window. Below them bloomed the vibrant purple and yellow of passionflowers and lilies. A fountain murmured softly at the far end of the room, and spreading rampantly between every pavestone, a carpet of magnificent golden blooms shimmered.

The king poured his magic into tending the impressive conservatory with such care that it was visible in the flourishing of every flower.

The pair made their way to a round stone table, set with six chairs and a white and gold tea set waiting for them on top. A copper kettle, hanging on a stand that suspended it above the table, waited for Asgore to make use of it at any moment that he might have yet another unexpected guest.

“So, dear one, what brings you back to me after… nearly two years, is it?” Asgore asked once they were seated.

Gaster sighed, slumped back into his seat. “I find myself in need of your wisdom, on more than one count. My work has brought me several dilemmas, and with it, dangers.”

The king laid his hand upon the table, and a flame burst to life in his palm, beginning to lap at the kettle from beneath. It was a calming ritual, the water slowly heating in the gentle flame, the tealeaves being ground and added after a time, the aromatic steam rising to fill the room. He found that the slow process, along with the tea, soothed his more agitated guests.

“Perhaps, for the sake of clarity, it would be best to start from the beginning?”

“Right, yes. Of course...”

So he began.

He told him of the Machine, its stubborn incapacity to do what it was built for despite the delicate precision of its construction, the refining and fine-tuning of its design inspired by complex devices studied in the futures of other universes.

He told him a little more about those other universes, of which he had theorised with the King before - their astounding similarities and unnerving differences - the poor, cursed monsters trapped beneath the ground for humanity to forget about. How their appearances and societies changed to cope with the harsh realities they endured.

He told him of encounters with other versions of himself, other scientists with intentions similar to his own, and of the Inversion - the malicious creature that took on the image of his own son, always fighting to be let in.

Asgore was patient as always, asking questions where clarification was needed of theoretical or mechanical details. The king was no academic, but he had lived for many years longer than Gaster, who was himself rather ancient. Nothing was beyond him, when applied the correct time and attention - both of which, he had plenty to spare.

At some point during the discussion, the tea was ready, and Gaster was given a delicate teacup from a set that, though matching in design, was made in an array of different sizes to suit the different guests who might use them. After nearly an hour, and several cups of the sweet, floral tea, the doctor had gone through everything he needed to explain his work.

“Incredible. Incredible, but reasonable enough to me. Very comprehensive.” Asgore murmured. “So, how could I possibly help you? Is it equipment you require? I can certainly-”

“No, no, not equipment... Although, one thing might be easier to source with your help - a replacement for the viewport on my Machine, to keep out that awful otherworldly intruder?”

“Certainly, if you can supply the details, I can call in the appropriate favours, as it were.”

“Thank you. That would be a relief. However, what I truly need is your advice, and your permission.” Gaster ran a slender finger absently along the grooves in the surface of the stone table.

“Permission? Nonsense! You don’t need my say-so any more. Your creations supply warmth and light to our city, and your counsel and expertise has helped me to broker peace with humanity. Refuge flourishes under your care. Surely you know by now that I trust you?”

“I do know. But my path from here becomes less straightforward. My vision wanders beyond our people, to other versions of our civilisation stifled and suffering in the dark. I have the chance to help them, too. But the only method is to bring them here. They would have to live amongst your people.”

“But by the nature of this ‘multiverse’ you speak of, they are also my people.” Asgore returned, with certainty. “No matter where they come from, it is my duty to defend and care for all of monsterkind.”

The doctor ran his fingertips back over his skull, tracing the edges of his eyesockets as if to smooth away the creases of fatigue. “But they wouldn’t have any say in the matter. It would simply be done; they would be brought here for good. I have yet to tell you the worst of it - last month, I performed my first simulation of such a ‘rescue’. It would seem that enough external interference could cause a universe to… collapse. Leaving those ‘saved’ with nowhere to go back to. Can I truly justify doing such a thing?”

Asgore studied Gaster’s face. Through the years of the great human war, and long centuries before, the doctor had been his loyal friend: honest in his opinions, supportive and reliable. Gaster’s eyelights were dimmed with a shadow of uncertainty that Asgore hadn’t seen in a long time.

“You want me to tell you not to do it.” He observed.

“I want you to be honest with me.”

“I haven’t seen what you’ve seen. I cannot make this choice for you.”

 

↭↭↭

 

Serenity sat happily on the back of Wood Wolf’s cart, rattling along the street below the lamplight, enjoying the crunch of pinecones beneath the wheels. Her hands were numb despite being wrapped in the pockets of her jacket, and she nestled her face into the scarf borrowed from the doctor last week - he’d insisted she keep it, telling her that he didn’t have a nose to get cold anyway.

Winter was looming between the pine trees. It was barely 4pm, but one would think it was evening, the flames of the streetlamps blazing to ward off the encroaching dark. Seri had recently discovered that it was the job of the tallest fawn in Refuge to carry a small orange lizard upon their antlers, and walk each street so that the reptile could breathe flames into every lamp. She liked to watch them totter past each day.

Wood Wolf was very busy now, so she had taken to helping him deliver firewood to the smaller, less furry monsters in the town and making sure that every home was well-stocked. She enjoyed having something to do aside from wait for her next appointment with the doctor, and everyone in Refuge did something to help the village, even the really tiny creatures.

Her mother had chosen to help at the village farm alongside some of the rabbit family, so Seri was going to be the woodcutter’s assistant. Wolf was good company. He spoke rarely and gently, but he was getting better at answering her questions, and he chuckled roughly at her jokes. He whistled as he travelled the streets with his deliveries so that his clients could hear him coming, and she had learned to hum along to some of the tunes.

 

A mouse with incredibly large ears came out to meet them at the next delivery stop, bundled up in several woollen jumpers at the door to their lovely house in a hollow tree. Serenity hopped off the back of the still-moving cart, rushing around to the front to hold the gate open for Wolf, and wiggling her gloved fingers to get some feeling back into them.

Several mouse children were called outside by their father to help stack the logs, even if the tiny, wool-clad fluffballs could only carry one log at a time. Their squeaky chatter entertained Seri and Wolf as they worked to sort the woodpile. Once it was done, the mouse father made both of them a mug of hot chocolate, wishing them well.

Serenity was very grateful for the warmth of the drink as they made their way to the last house on today’s list. She gripped her mug tightly in both hands so that none spilt as Wolf pulled the cart along the increasingly bumpy road, further away from the centre of town. She peered up the long lane on the right as they passed by - Doctor Gaster’s house.

She wondered briefly what had required Doctor Gaster to cancel his appointment with her today. She didn’t mind especially, but she  _ was  _ curious. All the windows of the big house were dark this evening, apart from one dim light on the upper floor, making it look especially ominous.

It looked like the doctor was out.

Her attention was brought back to the road as Wood Wolf pulled the cart onto the last driveway. The house at the end was rambling and single-storeyed, and like the doctor’s, all the lights were out, aside from one lantern in a lop-sided window. Wolf cocked his head, and dropped the cart’s handle to investigate.

While he knocked at the door, Seri set her empty mug on the cart bed and trotted around to the side of the house to check the other windows. All dark. She hurried around the yard, maintaining pace to keep warm, and making it all the way around to confirm that there was nobody home. She returned to Wood Wolf’s side.

“Nobody there.” She said shortly. She’d taken to mimicking Wolf’s habit of using short sentences when working with him.

He shrugged. “Come back later?”

She nodded, and wandered back to hop onto the cart. The remaining logs would just have to wait until tomorrow - she patted them sadly. She looked back at the little cottage as they made the way back up the hill.

“Whose house is that?”

“Ferryperson... Must still be working.”

“Hmm...” more to herself, she wondered, “should we have left a note?”

Wolf just shrugged his massive shoulders again, and started back up whistling to himself. It was getting dark, and she could tell somehow that he was slightly on-edge. She took to humming along as usual, swinging her legs from her perch on the back of the cart to keep her feet warm.

 

As they passed the track to Doctor Gaster’s house, something caught Serenity’s eye. A flash of bright colour amongst the dusk-mottled forest. Yellow and white, a small shape shuffling about amongst the overgrown hedges. She let out a little gasp.

“Is that...?”

Wood Wolf gave a confused flick of his ears and slowed his pace, but she had already jumped down from her seat and was heading up the lane at speed.

“Papyrus?” She called, tripping on loose stones in her rush up to the gate. The little skeleton was there, indeed, wearing a lovely yellow coat and looking around confused, a bug net almost as tall as himself clutched in one hand.

“It  _ is  _ you! Over here, Papyrus!” The excitement was jittery in her voice.

“Oh! Miss Serenity?” The skeleton was up to the gate and opening it for her in a moment, having to stand on tiptoe to reach the latch. His sockets sparked with tiny, excited orange lights. “Have you come to play with me?”

“I was helping deliver wood,” she looked back to where Wolf was waiting idly, his head tilted to listen in on their conversation, “but if you’re allowed, would you like to come with me for a little while?”

“Well…” He turned back to the house, bouncing on his feet. “Papa isn’t here. But he would let me play with you, I think? You are one of his favourite patients - I’m sure he would!”

“Hooray!” Seri took one of his skeletal hands in her own, and the pair rushed off back down the track, Papyrus still clutching his bug net, and the garden gate bouncing half-closed behind them.

The duo charged to the cart, Papyrus leading, incredibly fast despite being shorter than Serenity. They came to a sharp halt before Wolf.

“Good evening, Mister Wolf." He greeted politely.

“Master Skeleton.” Came the deep-voiced response and a nod from the canine.

 

The skeleton was happy to sit atop the pile of undelivered logs, chattering away and pointing out various goings-on about the village as the travelled. Seri and Wolf dropped off their empty mugs off at the mouse cottage before carrying on towards town.

“Papyrus?” Serenity asked, interrupting his rambling about how hard it must be to be a tiny mouse in winter.

“Yes, Serenity?”

“Did your father really say that I was his favourite patient?”

“Well, not exactly, but he does talk about his work on souls a lot, and he has a drawing of your soul on the wall next to all his machine diagrams, so I think you must at least be one of his most interesting patients.”

“Does he have many others?”

“Oh, yes! Lots, but not any who have to be treated as often as you are.”

“Oh. I see…”

She wasn’t sure how she felt about all that. Firstly the worrying thought that she was the most regular of the doctor’s patients, and secondly the discovery that the doctor might discuss his work with his sons. She supposed it made sense if they were intended to join their father in his business, and she wouldn’t particularly mind Papyrus knowing about her condition.

The idea of it, however, threw into sharp contrast the thought that Doctor Gaster, no matter how often she saw him, was as reclusive and indecipherable as ever, and she had no idea about him outside of his work. After all, she only knew about Papyrus by accident. The only time she had experienced Doctor Gaster outside of his professional condition was at Grillby’s inn.

“Are you alright, Serenity?” The small skeleton was looking at her uncertainly.

“I am, don’t worry.” She leaned around the skeleton to talk to Wood Wolf.

“Wolf? Can we go to Grillby’s?”

He seemed to consider it, batting one ear, before grunting. “We can.”

“Thank you!” She grinned at Papyrus, who returned the smile toothily.

 

↭↭↭

 

“There is one further issue to discuss, I’m afraid.”

The doctor and the king had retreated from the conservatory to one of the cozier drawing rooms once the more urgent matters had been discussed. A fire was burning in the grate and the heavy curtains were drawn against the dark.

“Quickly then, before Toriel comes to fetch us for dinner.” Asgore had become tired of debate, having had the same argument back and forth with the doctor for several hours. Hunger was now making him short-tempered.

Gaster gathered himself. He wasn’t looking forward to this topic. He knew his king well, and was sure the discussion could only end one way. He took a breath, and began.

“My newest patient is a human.”

“Indeed? That’s unusual nowadays, isn’t it?” The king’s eyes brightened from the glaze of fatigue. “What kind?”

“Purple.”

“What an odd coincidence.”

“Yes, but a fortuitous one. She would likely have been dead within a few weeks had she not found her way to me. I haven’t the heart to tell the child’s mother how critical the situation could have been.”

“What could possibly ail a human child that requires your specific expertise?”

“She... has a soul suture.”

“Oh. Then, she is…?”

“A mage. Yes.” Gaster paused to let Asgore deliberate over this information. “The suture currently makes her utterly unable to use her abilities, but she will recover. When she does-”

“Does she know?” Asgore cut him off, his voice becoming stern.

“That she is a mage? No.”

“She mustn’t find out. It is too dangerous...”

He didn’t need to finish. They both knew how serious the matter of human magic was.

Monsters understood magic. They regulated and controlled their own power naturally. A human with magic was a living weapon, driven by the ambitious fury of humanity. Mages were very rare now, and human society often cast them out or feared them. Humanity had forgotten how useful magic once was to them.

Asgore and Gaster had long since agreed that it was a very sensitive matter, and it was best not to remind humans of what they were capable of. Luckily, occurrences of mages had declined over the last couple of centuries. The pair of them had relaxed, allowed themselves to disregard the threat.

The existence of Serenity had brought all that back, along with Gaster’s discovery that human mages had been responsible for the spell that trapped monsterkind underground in other universes. Asgore knew everything, now.

“She is clever, Asgore. Almost singularly so. If I don’t tell her, she will eventually put the pieces together - non-magical beings cannot get soul sutures.”

“Then you needn’t give her all the pieces of the puzzle. She doesn’t need to know.”

“She is nine years old, yet she already surpasses Sans in intellect and makes connections well beyond her capacity. She is a purple soul, after all, and I fear that I shall not be able to keep her in the dark.”

“She cannot find out, doctor, you know this. If she knows where Refuge is, knows where you, my most valued advisor, live, then...”

“I am aware of the dangers. I merely wish to inform you that her discovering the truth is inevitable.”

“Then perhaps you should discontinue her treatment.”

Gaster’s pupils went wide. “I will do no such thing. That would kill her!”

The king studied his passionate reaction with amusement. His suggestion was a bluff, of course. Asgore would never wish death upon any living creature, and should Gaster have been unblinded by emotion, he would have realised that fact.

“You care for this child.” He noted.

“I don’t. Not any more than I do for my other patients.” Asgore raised a furry brow. “Perhaps I-... I see something of myself in her. I shouldn’t, I know that. You don’t need to tell me not to get attached to humans.”

Asgore sat back, and broke the building tension with a soft chuckle.

“It isn’t humans that are the problem, Gaster. I know several that I could call ‘friend’. It’s the idea of a young, uninformed human with magic that concerns me. Especially a purple mage.”

“That is the precise reason I dislike the suggestion of lying to her. She would definitely be upset about it, should she find out.”

“Then what do you recommend?”

“I… I could teach her.”

“Teach her? What could you teach her that would prevent the inevitable?”

“She is living in Refuge while her treatment continues. I can teach her the ways of monsters. She already cares for several of the townspeople. If I can encourage that friendship, lead her gently into her powers…”

“You hope that you can teach a human empathy?” Asgore sounded as uncertain as Gaster felt.

“If human empathy is unobtainable, then monsterkind is just as doomed here as it is in any other universe.” Gaster hung his head, looking at his palms. “A chance like this is as unlikely as it seems. It will not arise again in either of our lifetimes. Even if the child is unreceptive to my guidance, she may at least come to respect monsterkind. That is all I can hope for.”

“Then as always, I trust your judgement. I hope for the good of all that she takes to your guidance.”

 

↭↭↭

 

The trio were warming themselves by the light of Grillby’s flames, Papyrus and Seri perched on barstools (after some scrambling to reach the high-up seats), with Papyrus’ bug net propped up against the bar. Wood Wolf was a few feet away, talking to some of his human friends whilst keeping half an eye on the youngsters. Grillby was currently entertaining them with his attempts to teach Seri more sign language.

Papyrus was so good at it that it was enough to make Serenity jealous. She knew that monster children often grew up faster than human children, but Papyrus had revealed on their journey that he was only six years old, and yet he could speak to Grillby so easily with his tiny bony fingers.

“What was that one?” She asked, frowning.

“This?” Papyrus repeated his last motion, and she nodded. “It means nice.” He pointed to her, and then made the sign again, waiting patiently for her to catch up with a grin on his face. Grillby’s flames crackled as he laughed beside them.

It took her a moment, but she caught on. “Oh, I see!” She put together the signs for ‘you’ and ‘nice’ and ‘too’, pointing at Papyrus. He cackled and clapped his hands.

“You will be able to speak with your hands in no time, Serenity! That was very good.”

“But you’re much better at it than I am.”

“I have known Grillby for my whole life, and papa taught me to speak this way from when I was very little. Of course I am better at it than you. But! I will teach you!”

He continued to teach her a few more words. There was ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, and ‘glass’, ‘drink’, ‘fire’ of course. Then there was ‘skeleton’ and ‘human’, and ‘friend’.

“Fr-iend… Like that?” She copied the sign.

* **Right** * signed Papyrus. He then signed something else quickly, pointing to her and repeating ‘friend’.

“You… um. Sorry.” She smiled uncertainly, giving the sign to tell him to repeat himself. He did so.

* **Will you be my friend?** *

“Oh! Yes, Papyrus.” She giggled, “of course I’ll be your friend.”

“Thank you Serenity!” He bounced excitedly, “Grillby, I have a human friend now!”

The elemental smiled, revealing the white-hot core inside his mouth. He signed something back, but as always, Serenity was too slow to catch the fluid movements. It didn’t help that he could change the shape of his hands - he didn’t even need to move his fingers to create the shapes of different signs.

Papyrus jumped down from his seat abruptly and ran up to Wood Wolf’s side, startling the bulky monster. He began excitedly telling Wolf and his companions that he had a new human friend, so Serenity promptly slipped to the floor to follow him before he could overwhelm Wolf too much.

Before she could reach the group of entertained people, though, the tiny skeleton had rocketed off again towards another table at high speed, to interrupt the conversation of a group of scaly monsters there. She made the mistake of jogging to catch up to him.

“...and her name is Serenity and- that’s her right now! I have to go!” Papyrus turned to face her, apparently taking her pace to mean that he was being chased. A glint of orange in his sockets told her that trouble was about to ensue, and within a second he had darted off between the tables.

She grinned and made a beeline for him, trying to cut him off before he could get back to the bar, where Grillby was watching with mild interest. One or two patrons laughed at their antics as they passed by. Within seconds they had made a lap of the room, and Papyrus somehow managed to snag his bug net on the way past.

He turned abruptly and brought the net down towards Serenity, though it didn’t have far to fall since he was so short. She squealed and turned on her heel, now the pursued rather than the pursuer as she dodged back between tables.

She only made it a few feet though, Papyrus somehow outpacing her with ease, before she was snagged by another deft swing of the net and came to an abrupt stop with the net down over her eyes, Papyrus laughing maniacally behind her. She could see Wood Wolf chuckling too, his teeth bared in a rare smile. His companions and several other patrons had joined in, and Seri could only smile sheepishly at the scene they’d caused.

The light atmosphere instantly shattered as the door burst open, and a low voice tight with concern called out:

“Grillby? Grillby, have you seen-” the voice cut off, and Seri turned from under the net to see the cause of the fuss. They sounded awfully upset…

A new skeleton stood in the doorway, stress and surprise darkening his features.

“Sans!” Papyrus gasped, “I caught a human, look!”

He pulled lightly on the rod of the net to steer Seri closer to the new skeleton, whose shadowy expression contrasted so heavily with the younger one’s triumphant grin.

“You didn’t tell me where you were, Papyrus.”

Serenity’s mind began to connect the clues - a new skeleton, around a foot taller than Papyrus and acting so stern and worried. That could only mean...

“Uh-oh… I-I thought it would be okay if I was here.” Papyrus stuttered.

“You aren’t-...” the taller skeleton huffed a breath, ran a hand down his face in a way so very similar to Doctor Gaster that Serenity could have laughed. This was without a doubt the mysterious other son of the doctor.

When he opened his eyes again, the cold-fire pinpricks were turned on her. The smile dropped from her cheeks.

“Did you bring him out here?”

Her throat dried up very quickly at the accusation in his tone. She tried to reassure herself that as a son of Doctor Gaster, it was likely that he was simply toying with her, and she had no reason to be afraid.

“Yes I did.” She sounded more certain than she felt. She removed the bug net from her head, and stepped forward smartly before the unnerving monster, arms politely behind her back. “You must be Papyrus’ brother?”

The skeleton’s tiny eyelights darted to look at Papyrus for a millisecond. The light that came from them was somehow colder than the doctor’s glowing pupils. “How did-?” He squinted at her again. “It doesn’t matter. Why did you bring him here?”

She felt the rising thrum in her ears that she now knew indicated that her soul was under stress. She breathed, in and out, and then continued talking as if she weren’t the least bit concerned. She was not the kind of person to let bullies get the better of her, regardless of who they were related to.

“I thought it would be alright, we had Wood Wolf with us, and Grillby, who I know is a good friend of the doctor’s.”

“It’s not alright. It’s not safe, and Papyrus, you know you shouldn’t run off like that.”

Papyrus was nervously twisting his fingers together, looking up into his brother’s unreadable face.

“I’m sorry, brother. I should have-”

“Wait, Papyrus. It was my fault.” Seri cut across him with conviction. The burn in her chest inspired anger over fear, and it wasn’t fair for him to be berated when she was the cause of the trouble. “You wouldn’t have gone running off in the first place if it weren’t for me.”

The smaller skeleton’s eyes widened, much like the last time she had deflected a scalding away from him. She continued, straight posture, firm tone, turning to look into the larger skeleton’s eyes and putting on her best ‘adult’ voice, the one her mother used sometimes when dealing with troublesome people.

“Papyrus is not the one to blame here, and I would prefer not to have him reprimanded for my mistake. I didn’t think anyone else was at home to worry about him.”

The skeleton simply observed her, face stony and unreadable, so she continued.

“If I had known it would cause such concern on your part, I certainly wouldn’t have brought him here without permission, I can assure you, Mister Skeleton.”

His eyes flickered down over her for a moment, and his expression softened minutely.

“You’re Serenity.” It wasn’t a question, so she didn’t answer, merely returned his gaze and tried to control her heart rate. Sans stared back, before he closed his eyes and released a breath. “Alright then, come on little bro. Time to go home.”

 

Once the brothers had left, Grillby came around from behind the bar and crouched in front of her, signing something she didn’t understand and placing a warm hand on her shoulder. She didn’t notice she was crying until he raised a napkin to her cheek to wipe the tears away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry this didn't happen the way you might have wanted.
> 
> Just remember, everyone can be a good person if they just try. Sometimes though, people need to find their reason to try.

**Author's Note:**

> I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments! C.M~
> 
> I now have a little place over on discord, where I post updates and artwork.  
> If you'd like to come hang out with people who enjoy Undertale and related fandoms, [come on over!](https://discord.gg/UYYpxCX)


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